Orders of Adjectives

In English, it is common to use more than one adjective before a noun — for example, “He's a silly young fool,” or “She's a smart energetic woman.” When you use more than one adjective, you have to put them in the right order, according to type.

1. The basic types of adjectives

Opinion

An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people may not agree with you).

e.g. silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult

Size

A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is.

e.g. large, tiny, enormous, little

Age

An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is.

e.g. ancient, new, young, old

Shape

A shape adjective describes the shape of something.

e.g. square, round, flat, rectangular, oval, spiral

Color

A color adjective, of course, describes the color of something.

e.g. red, blue, green, pink

Origin

An origin adjective describes where something comes from.

French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek

Material

A material adjective describes what something is made from.

e.g. wooden, metal, cotton, paper

Purpose

A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often end with “-ing”.

e.g. sleeping (as in “sleeping bag”), roasting (as in “roasting tin”)

2. Some examples of adjective order

Opinion	Size	Age	Shape	Color	Origin	Material	Purpose	Noun
	small			brown		paper		bag
sexy	short			white				dress
lovely	long			blonde				hair
new				black	German		sports	car

Look at the examples below.

• The shop assistant put the gift into a small brown paper bag.
• I’m going to a party tonight. I bought a sexy short white dress to wear.
• Paul sang a slow love song to his girlfriend. 
• It was so nice to come in from the cold and eat a delicious hot meal. 
• She was a beautiful woman with lovely long blonde hair.
• I just bought a new, black, German sports car. 
• Watch out! There is a big black ferocious dog over there. 

Note: It is very unusual to have more than three adjectives.

Proportional Comparatives

Proportional comparatives is used to show proportional effect when one comparative takes place.

Form: The comparative …, the comparative ….

For examples,

• The older we get, the more forgetful we are.
• The more advanced, the more complicated the computer is.
• The older you are, the lonelier you will become.
• The more adventurous it is, the more I like it.
•  The less I see him the more I like him.
• The more he reads, the less he understands.
• The older we grow, the wiser we become.
• The higher you climb, the colder it gets.
• The richer one grows the greater one’s worries.
• The less you spend, the more you save.
• The sooner they go, the better it is.
• The higher the salary, the better the living conditions are.
• The higher the qualification, the better salary he gets.
• The more you eat, the fatter you will be.
• The earlier we leave, the sooner we will arrive.
• The longer he waited, the more impatient he became.
• The more I got to know him, the more I liked him.
• The smarter the student, the easier the test is.
• The colder the weather, the better I feel.
• The better the service, the more expensive the hotel is.
• The better the car, the faster it will be.
• The more difficult the test, the worse the mark is.

Repeating Comparatives

Repeating comparative is used to describe a situation which keeps changing or changes slowly. It has two comparative adjectives joined by "and". Look at the structures in which they are constructed below.

Structure:  adj-er and adj-er

For examples,

• The earth is getting warmer and warmer.
• He is getting busier and busier at the moment.
• My uncle grew fatter and fatter over the years.
• As Microsoft grew, Bill Gates got richer and richer.
• The balloon got bigger and bigger and then burst.
• The tree grows taller and taller.
• The children are getting fatter and fatter.
• My daughter's English results are getting worse and worse.
• Your room is getting messier and messier.
• I saw him yesterday. He feels better and better.
• The hole in your pullover is getting bigger and bigger.
• The suitcase seemed to get heavier and heavier as I carried it along the road.

Structure:   more and more + adjective

For examples,

• It becomes more and more difficult to find a job these days.
• Things are getting more and more expensive.
• This book gets more and more interesting with every chapter.
• He spoke for over an hour and his explanation got more and more complicated.
• Milk is getting more and more expensive.
• I think films are getting more and more violent.
• It's getting more and more difficult to see him.
• As I waited for my interview, I became more and more nervous.

Structure:  less and less + adjective

For examples,

• The calling price seems to be less and less expensive.
• Many people have become less and less interested in the political issues.
• He gets less and less boring.
• Traveling is becoming less and less difficult.

Gradable and Absolute Adjectives

Many adjectives are gradable; we can make comparison. Look at the examples below.

•  big → bigger → biggest
•  small → smaller → smallest
•  cold → colder → coldest
•  tired → more tired → most tired
•  good →  better → best
•  bad → worse → worst

Some adjectives, however, are non-gradable; we can not make comparison because they have extreme meaning. These adjectives are called "absolute adjectives"; for examples, hilarious, freezing, horrible, terrified, starving...


LISTS OF GRADABLE AND ABSOLUTE ADJECTIVES

See more examples of absolute adjectives and their comparable meaning in the table below.

Gradable adjectives	Absolute adjectives
angry	furious
annoying	infuriating
bad	awful
bad	horrible, awful, terrible, disgusting
beautiful	gorgeous
big	huge, enormous
cold	freezing
excited	thrilled
frightening	terrifying
funny	hilarious
funny	hilarious
good	excellent, great, wonderful, fantastic, superb, brilliant
hot	boiling
hungry	starving
interesting	fascinating
loud, noisy	deafening
pleased	delighted
silly	ridiculous
small	tiny
strange	incredible
surprised	astonished, amazed
tasty	delicious
tired	exhausted
wet	soaked

USING WITH ADVERBS


We normally use adverbs of degree to modify these adjectives. However, it is noticeable that the gradable and absolute adjectives require different adverbs of degree.

Gradable adjectives are used with fairly, quite, rather, quite, and pretty. For examples,

• I am very tired. (I am absolutely tired.)
• It is quite cold outside. (It is extremely cold outside.)
• The story is fairly funny. (The story is absolutely funny.)

Absolute adjectives are used with  absolutely, totally, and completely. For examples,

• I am absolutely exhausted. (I am very exhausted.)
• It is extremely freezing outside. (It is fairly freezing outside.)
• The story is absolutely hilarious. (The story is very hilarious.)

Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbs of frequency tell "how often" something happen.They answer to the question: "How often?" or "How frequently?" For examples,

• I sometimes get up late. [It tells that I get up late 2 or 3 times per week. ]
• She rarely comes late. [It tells that it is not often that she comes late.]

MEANING AND USE

These adverbs tell the different frequency of things happening. Therefore, we can assume as in the table below:

Adverbs	Frequency (%)
Always / Constantly	95%
Usually / Nomrally	90%
Often / Frequently	60%
Sometimes	50%
Occassionally	40%
Rarely / Seldom	20%
Hardly ever / Scarely ever	6%
Never / Not ever	0%

 

POSITIONS

We simply place adverbs of frequency before other verbs, but after verbs "to be".

Before other verbs

For examples,

• She often visit her grand parents.
• They don't always order the products from us.

After verb "TO BE"

For examples,

• He is always late for class.
• She is occassionally in bad mood.

PRACTICE

Exercise 1: Place the correct adverbs of frequency into each sentence.

1. They come home late. (95%)
2. I arrive at the office at 7:30 AM. (90%)
3. She goes to the pagoda. (6%)
4. What do you do at weekends? (90%)
5. She doesn't go shopping. (60%)
6. She studies hard. (95%)
7. I am late for the meeting. (50%)
8. She is well-organized. (90%)
9. They aren't aware of what to do. (60%)
10. Is it hot in April? (95%)
11. She stays up late at night. ( 2 or 3 times per week)
12. He does exercise. (every morning)

Comparisons of Adjective

When we place two objects side by side, we notice some differences or similarities between them as to size, weight, color, etc. The similarities and differences allow us to compare them.

FORM

There are 3 degrees of adjectives in comparison: the basic adjectives, the comparatives, and the superlatives; for instance,

	Adjectives	Comparatives	Superlatives
One syllable adjectives	hot high long fat deep light bright	hotter higher longer fatter deeper lighter brighter	hottest highest longest fattest deepest lightest brightest
two or more syllable adjectives	busy clever common easy happy	busier cleverer commoner easier happier	busiest cleverest commonest easiest happiest
	careful honest patient	more/less careful more/less honest more/less patient	most/least careful most/least honest most/least patient
Three or more syllable adjectives	obedient expensive intelligent experienced generous aggressive	more/less obedient more/less expensive more/less intelligent more/less experienced more/less generous more/less aggressive	most/least obedient most/least expensive most/least intelligent most/least experienced most/least generous most/least aggressive
Irregular adjectives	bad far good little much/many	worse farther / further better less more	worst farthest / furthest best least most

USAGE

There are several ways we can use to compare things – like:

COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVE – we use it to compare two things; for examples,

Samang is 20 years old. Ratha is 18 years old.

• Samang is older than Ratha.
• Ratha is younger than Samnang.

Vanna always get good grade at school while his friend does not.

• Vanna is more intelligent than his friend.
• Vanna’s friend is less intelligent than Vanna.

Bunna spent 20,000 dollars to buy a car while Ratha spent 15,000 dollars.

• Bunna’s car is more expensive than Ratha’s .
• Ratha’s car is less expensive than Bunna’s.

SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVE – we use it to compare one to other things (or one among other things); for examples,

Samang is 60kg. Ratha is 65kg. Vanna is 55kg.

• Vanna is the lightest (among the three).
• Samnang is the heaviest.

Google is ranked the first followed by Yahoo and Altavista.

• Google is the most popular search engine.
• Altavista is the least popular search engine.

There are some 400 million people in Indonesia, 80 million people in Philippine, and 14 million people in Cambodia.

• Indonesia is the most populous country (among the three).
• Cambodia is the least populous country (among the three).

AS + ADJECTIVE + AS – we use it to compare things which are the same or equal; for examples,

Bopha is 1.60m, and Chenda is 1.60m.

• Bopha is as tall as Chenda.

Smart’s calling price is 5 cents per minute, and so does Beeline’s.

• Smart’s calling price is as cheap as Beeline’s.

Both Macintosh and Window work perfectly.

• Macintosh is as perfect as Window.

NOT + SO/AS + ADJECTIVE + AS – we use it to compare things which are not the same or equal as an alternative to comparative adjective form; for examples,

Firefox has more user than Opera.

• Opera is not as popular as Firefox.

Mount Oral is higher than Mount Dangrek.

• Mount Dangrek is not as high as Mount Oral.

REPEATING COMPARATIVE – we use it to describe a situation which keeps changing or changes slowly; for examples,

Form: adj-er and adj-er

• The earth is getting warmer and warmer.
• He is getting busier and busier at the moment.

Form: more and more + adjective

• It becomes more and more difficult to find a job these days.
• The book is getting more and more interesting.

Form: less and less + adjective

• The calling price seems to be less and less expensive.
• Many people have become less and less interested in the political issues.

PROPORTIONAL COMPARATIVE – we use it to show effect when one comparative takes place; for examples,

Form: The comparative …, the comparative ….

• The older we get, the more forgetful we are.
• The more advanced, the more complicated the computer is.
• The older you are, the lonelier you will become.

NOTE: There are some common modifier such as "much, a lot, far, a little, a bit, a little bit" which are normally used with comparative adjectives. For examples,

• Her performance was much better that yours.
• He is a bit taller than James.