Grammar practice · Skill 6 of 14

Adjective Order in English

Adjective order is the fixed sequence English uses when two or more adjectives come before a noun: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose. That is why we say a small black bag, never a black small bag. Seven rules and 40 adjective order exercises below show you how to get it right every time.

40 questions 8 levels of 5 7 rules Level 1 free

2 in 3

What we measured

of the 19,909 answers to one sentence about the tall red building were wrong in the last six months.

How do you put adjectives in the right order?

Use one order: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose

When two or more adjectives come before a noun, they follow one order: opinion (lovely), size (small), age (old), shape (round), color (red), origin (French), material (wooden), purpose (dining), then the noun. The first letters spell OSASCOMP, and one sentence holds them: Our Smart And Serious Classmates Often Make Progress. You will never need all eight. You only need to know which of your two words comes first: the tall red building, because size comes before color.

Right:She found a beautiful old clock. (opinion, age)
Right:He hung a small round mirror. (size, shape)
Right:We need a new Italian dictionary. (age, origin)
Right:I wore a blue cotton shirt. (color, material)

Not:We waited outside the red tall building.Instead:We waited outside the tall red building.
Not:I lost a leather black wallet.Instead:I lost a black leather wallet.

Not sure? The word people could disagree about goes first

If you forget the list, ask which word two people could argue about. That word goes further from the noun. One student may call a film interesting and another may not, but nobody argues about whether it is French, so it is an interesting French film. Opinions come first. After that, the harder a fact is to change, the closer it sits to the noun. A desk can get older, but it cannot stop being wooden.

Right:She teaches a popular new course.
Right:We ate at a cheap Korean restaurant.
Right:There was a strange blue light in the window.

Not:We tried a Mexican delicious soup.Instead:We tried a delicious Mexican soup.
Not:She has a silver pretty necklace.Instead:She has a pretty silver necklace.

Two adjectives is normal, and three is plenty

Long chains of adjectives belong in grammar books, not in good writing. In real English, most nouns take one or two adjectives, three is unusual, and native speakers rarely go past that. If you have more to say, move the extra detail after the noun with with, from or made of, or give it a sentence of its own. You will sound more natural, and you will have fewer words to put in order.

Right:I bought a small blue lamp from Japan.
Right:We stayed in a quiet old hotel with a view of the river.
Right:Her desk is made of dark oak.

Not:We have a big nice old round brown oak table.Instead:We have a nice big round table made of dark oak.

Purpose words stay next to the noun

A purpose word tells you what something is for: running shoes, a study room, a sleeping bag. It works with the noun like a single word, so nothing goes between them. Every other adjective goes in front of the pair: new running shoes, a quiet study room. The same is true of a noun that names the kind of thing, such as campus in a small modern campus library or history in a difficult history exam.

Right:She packed a warm sleeping bag.
Right:A small modern campus library opened last year.
Right:We have a difficult history exam on Friday.

Not:He bought a tennis new racket.Instead:He bought a new tennis racket.
Not:I took a chemistry hard class.Instead:I took a hard chemistry class.

Same type of adjective? Use a comma or and

Two adjectives of the same type have no set order, so you join them with a comma or with and: a cold, wet day or a cold and wet day. To test a pair, put and between the words, then swap them. If both still sound fine, they are the same type, as in a smart, funny professor. If not, as in a big red car, use no comma and no and. A comma never goes right before the noun.

Right:It was a hot, humid afternoon.
Right:He is a calm, careful driver.
Right:My advisor is a kind and helpful person.

Not:We had a long, busy, week.Instead:We had a long, busy week.
Not:It was a quiet, and sunny morning.Instead:It was a quiet, sunny morning.
Not:I carried a small, black bag.Instead:I carried a small black bag.

After a verb, and with two colors, use and

The order only matters before a noun. After a verb such as is, seems or looks, adjectives need and, and you can usually choose the order: the room is small and bright. With three, use commas and then and: the room is small, bright and quiet. Two colors on one thing also need and: a black and white photo. Without it, the two colors have no link and the phrase is wrong.

Right:The new gym is clean and bright.
Right:The lecture was long, dry and hard to follow.
Right:Our team wears a green and white jersey.

Not:The dorm is quiet clean.Instead:The dorm is quiet and clean.
Not:She sent me a black white photo.Instead:She sent me a black and white photo.

Articles and numbers come before every adjective

Small words such as a, the, my and this come first, then numbers, then adjectives: my two old friends, the three new students. First, next and last go in front of a number: the first two chapters. One more check: when you reorder adjectives, the article can change, because the word straight after it decides between a and an. It is a new film, but an interesting new film.

Right:My two best friends live on campus.
Right:We read the last three pages again.
Right:It is an exciting new project.

Not:I met new three students.Instead:I met three new students.
Not:She is a excellent young writer.Instead:She is an excellent young writer.

Where this costs you marks on the TOEFL

The TOEFL has no separate grammar section, so adjective order costs you marks inside Writing and Speaking. The sharpest test is Build a Sentence, the 10 short Writing items where you put words in order: if two adjectives change places, the sentence is wrong. In Write an Email and the Academic Discussion you choose your own words, so use two adjectives you can place with confidence rather than three you are guessing at. One slip is small, but phrases such as a leather black bag hurt when they keep appearing. In Listen and Repeat, a sentence is also easier to say back when its order already sounds normal to you.

If your first language is...

First language	What to watch for
Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese speakers	In your language most adjectives follow the noun, and a few common ones, such as the words for small or good, can come before it. French says "une petite voiture rouge", so the noun sits between its adjectives. English moves both to the front: a small red car. After you write a noun, check that no adjective was left behind it.
Arabic speakers	Arabic puts adjectives after the noun, and two adjectives often appear in the reverse of the English order: car, red, big. So English is close to a mirror image of what you would naturally say. Flip the pair and move it in front of the noun: a big red car.
Japanese and Korean speakers	Your adjectives already come before the noun, but two of them are often joined with a form that means "and", as in Japanese "ookikute akai", big and red, and the pair can usually swap places. In English, adjectives of different types take no link and cannot swap: a big red car.
Chinese, Hindi, Urdu and Turkish speakers	Adjectives come before the noun in these languages too, so the position feels right and the mistake is easy to miss. A word-for-word translation will not always give you the English sequence, so check each pair against the list, especially size before color and color before material.

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Adjective order exercises: Level 1 with answers

Try these before you open an answer. Each one explains why, not only what.

My roommate carries a _____ backpack to class. (blue small / small blue)
Show the answer
small blue
Size comes before color. Say how big it is first, then what color it is.
I want to buy a _____ bicycle for getting around campus. (new red / red new)
Show the answer
new red
Age comes before color. New tells you how old it is, and red sits closer to the noun.
Find the mistake: We sat under a green big tree behind the student center.
Show the answer
We sat under a big green tree behind the student center.
Big is size and green is color, and size comes first. It is the same pattern as the tall red building.
He wore a _____ black coat to the interview. (long or wool)
Show the answer
long
Long is size, and size comes before color. Wool is a material, so it goes after the color: a black wool coat.
Put in order, with one piece left over: We live in [white / a / house / an / small].
Show the answer
We live in a small white house.
Size comes before color, so small goes first. It starts with a consonant sound, so the article is a.

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FAQ

Common questions

What is the correct order of adjectives in English?

The usual order of adjectives is opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose, and then the noun. You almost never use all of them. In a normal sentence you only need to place two or three, as in "a large old wooden desk," which is size, then age, then material.

What does OSASCOMP stand for?

OSASCOMP is a memory aid for the order: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose. If the letters are hard to hold, use this sentence: "Our Smart And Serious Classmates Often Make Progress." Use it to sort a pair of adjectives, not to write a long chain of them.

Do native speakers really follow this order?

Yes, nearly always, even though most of them never learned the list. The phrase "a red big car" sounds wrong to them at once. A few fixed phrases break the pattern, such as "the big bad wolf," and big can come before an opinion word, as in "a big beautiful house." For your own writing, follow the order.

When do I put a comma between adjectives?

Use a comma when two adjectives are the same type and you could put and between them, as in "a long, boring lecture." Use no comma when they are different types, as in "a tall red building." A quick test is to swap the words: if the phrase still sounds fine, the comma belongs there.

Does adjective order matter on the TOEFL?

There is no separate grammar section, so it is never tested alone. It matters in the Writing section, where 10 short items ask you to put words in order and a swapped pair makes the sentence wrong. It also shapes how natural your emails, discussion posts and spoken answers sound to a rater.

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