Lesson 25: Everyday Grammar: Word Order of Adjectives

This is Everyday Grammar. I'm Kaveh. And I'm Lucija. I'm thinking of getting some delicious Mexican food after work today. Why not some Mexican delicious food? Because that just sounds silly. Adjectives follow a particular order. You can't just throw them in anywhere. Says who? I can say a beautiful red vase or a red beautiful vase. You'll still understand

me. True, but it might sound weird. Hear me out. A noun is usually modified by one or two adjectives. Although there can be more. Okay, so tell me about this adjective word order thing you were talking about. The first thing to know is that opinion adjectives usually come before all other adjectives. Words

like dangerous, difficult, and favorite express opinions. Easy enough to understand. After opinion adjectives, you then have size, age, color, nationality, and material. Wait a minute. What about quantity, like the three blind mice? Oh, when a number is used as an adjective, it tops all, even opinions. Got it. So without

numbers, opinion adjectives come first, like the costly road. Yes, then size, then age, then color, then nationality, then material. That sounds weird. Just stick to that word order and don't use more than two adjectives for each noun.