One of the most overlooked writing rules that hardly ever gets talked about is the order in which a list of adjectives are placed before a noun in a sentence. According to Grammarly, “An adjective is a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun, often providing information about the qualities or characteristics of somone or something.”
It is very rare to use more than three adjectives before a noun; but if you had to, here is the order in which they generally are placed:
- Opinion: ugly, lovely, horrible, beautiful
- Size: huge, tiny, big, small, little
- Age: new, old, young
- Shape: square, round, flat
- Color: black, white, red, blue
- Origin: The country the noun is from—American (knife), British (flag), Chineese (food).
- Material: wooden, plastic, metalic
- Purpose: what the object is for—swimming (pool), sewing (machine)
As you will see, like Proverbs in the Bible, when this rule is applied generally, it brings a general result. Because sometimes you can mix the order up and it will sound fine. Because for most people when they talk or write generally follow these rules without thinking. And maybe that is the reason no one talks about it.
Examples
The following sentences use the rule:
- I wanted a black wooden table.
- They bought a new white car.
- Marcy came home and sat on her comfortable old wooden bed.
- He wants some really delicious French pastries.
- I have a lot of interesting old car manuals.
As you can see, some sentences you can switch things around and it would sound ok, like “I have a lot of old interesting car manuals.” Or, “I love my round antique vase.” But sentences like, “I wanted a wooden black table,” just sounds strange or at the very least doesn’t sound right.
For more information on this topic, check out the Grammar Girl Podcast with Mignon Fogarty below:
Just something to think about when writing your next lovely little new blog post.
Pens & Wrenches 
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