Little, British, wonderful, copper, hi-tech goggles?
Why does "wonderful, little, hi-tech, British, copper goggles" sound better than "little, British, wonderful, copper, hi-tech goggles"?
Do you remember your high school English textbook listing the correct order when using multiple adjectives to describe a noun? Have you ever noticed that the order of your adjectives just don't sound right when you write or say them in a certain order? If someone asked you--as a writer--to write the guidelines for the order of adjectives in the English language, could you do it?
We all know determiners (e.g., a, an, the, every, each, four, many, my, your, that, third) come first when describing a noun--whether we call them determiners or by more specific names or don't call them anything--but what happens next?
It is rare to actually use more than three adjectives to describe a noun, and it often sounds unnatural to use even three. However, try some of these and see if you can determine the obscure grammar rule about the correct order of adjectives. (I'm not including any commas so I won't give any hints.)
Which of each pair of phrases is correct?
Handsome misunderstood centuries-old Hungarian vampire
Hungarian centuries-old misunderstood handsome vampire
Mischievous little old grandmother
Little mischievous old grandmother
New striped blue square boring silk scarf
Boring new square blue striped silk scarf
Leather-bound ancient interesting mathematics book
Interesting ancient leather-bound mathematics book
Delicious hot large round pepperoni pizza
Large hot delicious pepperoni round pizza
Beautiful stubborn young American girl
Young American stubborn beautiful girl
Brown brand-new heavy gardening ceramic trowel
Heavy brand-new brown ceramic gardening trowel
Humid lush terraformed green m-class moon
Lush m-class humid green terraformed moon
Tight dirty faded flannel shirt
Faded flannel dirty tight shirt
Oceanic harmful excessive debris
Excessive harmful oceanic debris
The chart below will give you the answers and the reasons. The order of adjectives follows guidelines, rather than strict grammar rules. So you will find some minor differences among sources. Most (1, 2) agree that 'age' should follow 'condition'. However, I prefer the order listed in the chart. (3)
All agree, however, that opinions come before facts. The important thing is to realize that some lists of adjectives sound better than others, and some are downright wrong.
I won't even discuss those adjectives that can only appear after a noun and linking verb (e.g., glad, ill, annoyed) or why it is idiomatically correct to say "a hot cup of coffee" when the coffee is hot, not the cup. :o)
(1) Williams, Thomas. "Adjective Word Order." Adjective Word Order | Learn English. Accessed January 21, 2017. http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/adjective-word-order.
(2) "Adjectives and order of adjectives in English writing --Today's Free English Lesson on MyEnglishTeacher.net." Adjectives and order of adjectives in English writing --Today's Free English Lesson on MyEnglishTeacher.net. 2001. Accessed January 21, 2017. http://myenglishteacher.net/adjectivesorder.html.
(3) Forsyth, Mark. The Elements of Eloquence: how to turn the perfect English phrase. London: Icon, 2013.
