Adjectives: Types, Order and Examples

An adjective is a word that describes or limits a noun or pronoun: a tall building, three apples, this book. English adjectives do not change for number or gender, and several adjectives before a noun follow a fixed order: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose. Below are the types, the order chart, comparatives, common mistakes and a quiz with answers.

The short answer

An adjective describes or limits a noun or pronoun. It tells you what kind (a quiet street), which one (that street), or how many (three streets). In English, adjectives:

• usually come before the noun (a red bus) or after a linking verb such as be, seem or become (The bus is red);
• never change form for plural or gender (a tall boy, tall girls);
• can be compared (taller, tallest; more useful, most useful).

When you use more than one adjective before a noun, they follow a natural order: a lovely small old round brown Italian wooden bowl. The chart below shows how to remember it.

What adjectives do

Take the sentence "She bought a jacket." Add adjectives and you learn much more: "She bought a warm, waterproof jacket." The adjectives give the reader detail without a longer explanation. In writing, strong nouns and verbs matter most, but a well-chosen adjective can be exactly the precise detail that makes a description clear.

If you are still learning the other word classes, our guide to the parts of speech shows where adjectives fit among them.

Position: before the noun or after the verb

Most adjectives can go in both positions. A few can only go in one:

• Only before a noun: main, chief, mere, former, utter (the main reason, not the reason is main).
• Only after a verb: afraid, alone, asleep, alive, ill, awake (The child is asleep, not the asleep child; use sleeping before the noun).

After something, anything, nothing, someone and similar words, the adjective comes second: Is there anything cheaper?

The main types of adjectives

Many modern grammars classify demonstratives, possessives, quantifiers and the articles (a, an, the) as determiners rather than adjectives. Traditional school grammar puts them all under "adjectives". Follow whichever system your teacher or textbook uses, and stay consistent within one piece of work. The word its is a possessive, with no apostrophe; it's means it is or it has.

Proper adjectives

Proper adjectives are always capitalised: a French novel, the Welsh coast, Elizabethan theatre. The rule only applies when the word is still tied to the proper noun. Words that have become ordinary common words do not take capitals in most dictionaries, for example a platonic friendship or a quixotic plan. When in doubt, check an up-to-date dictionary.

Compound adjectives and hyphens

When a compound adjective comes before a noun, it is usually hyphenated: a well-known author, a fast-growing company, a ten-minute break. After the verb, the hyphen is usually dropped: The author is well known. Note that the noun part inside the compound stays singular: a five-year-old child (not five-years-old). See our guide to hyphens and dashes and the page on compound words for more detail.

Participial adjectives: -ed or -ing?

Learners often mix these up. The -ing adjective describes the thing that causes the feeling; the -ed adjective describes the person who has the feeling.

The order of adjectives

When two or more adjectives describe the same noun, native speakers follow a regular sequence without thinking about it. The standard order is:

Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Colour, Origin, Material, Purpose (then the noun).

A memorable way to hold it is the phrase "OSASCOMP", or you can make up your own sentence from the eight first letters.

Examples in context:

• She wore a beautiful long red silk dress.
• They live in a charming old stone cottage.
• He carried a heavy black leather briefcase.

Some points to remember:

1. Opinion adjectives (lovely, awful, useful) come first, and more general opinions (nice, wonderful) come before more specific ones (comfortable, tasty).
2. Fact adjectives (size onwards) are less strict, but a wrong order still sounds odd: a green big dog is clumsy, while a big green dog is natural. Two adjectives from the same group, such as sweet and sour, can usually swap places.
3. Material and purpose sit closest to the noun: a leather travel bag, a glass picture frame.
4. A long string of adjectives is rare. Use two or three, then move extra detail to a new sentence.
5. Commas separate adjectives of the same kind that can be reversed or joined with and: a calm, patient teacher (a patient, calm teacher; calm and patient). Do not put a comma between adjectives of different kinds in the order above: a small wooden box, not a small, wooden box. The comma rules guide has more.

A quick test

To decide if you need a comma, try two checks: (1) Can you swap the adjectives? (2) Does and fit naturally between them? If both answers are yes, use a comma. A cold, rainy day passes both tests. A big red bus does not (a red big bus sounds wrong), so there is no comma.

Comparative and superlative adjectives

Adjectives can show degrees of a quality: positive (tall), comparative (taller) and superlative (tallest).

• Use than with a comparative: This laptop is lighter than that one.
• Use the with a superlative: It is the lightest in the range.
• Never combine both forms: not more taller or most easiest. Write taller and easiest.
• Some adjectives are absolute and sound odd in comparison (unique, perfect, dead). In careful writing, use more nearly perfect or almost unique instead.
• Some two-syllable adjectives accept both patterns: clever, cleverer or more clever; simple, simpler or more simple. Pick the one that sounds right and use it consistently.

As in other aspects of English, British and American usage can differ slightly (for example different from / to / than), so follow the variety your reader expects.

Common mistakes with adjectives

1. Adding -s to an adjective. Wrong: two beautifuls houses. Right: two beautiful houses.
2. Putting the adjective after the noun. Wrong: a house big. Right: a big house.
3. Double comparatives. Wrong: more better. Right: better.
4. Mixing up -ed and -ing. Wrong: I am boring in the class. Right: I am bored in the class, or The class is boring.
5. Using an adjective instead of an adverb. Wrong: She sings beautiful. Right: She sings beautifully. Exception: after linking verbs, use an adjective (She looks happy).
6. Wrong order. Wrong: a wooden big table. Right: a big wooden table.
7. **Using much or many wrongly.** Use many with countable nouns (many books) and much with uncountable nouns (much information). In everyday English, a lot of is often more natural.
8. **Treating less and fewer alike.** Traditionally, use fewer with countable nouns (fewer mistakes) and less with uncountable nouns (less noise). Many style guides still prefer this distinction in formal writing.
9. Overusing intensifiers. Very good is rarely better than excellent. Look for one exact adjective rather than two weak ones.
10. **Confusing its and it's.** Its shows possession; it's is a contraction.

Before and after: improving a paragraph

Before: "The restaurant was very nice and the food was very good. The waiter was very nice. We had a very good time."

After: "The restaurant was cosy and lively, and the food was fresh and generously portioned. The waiter was attentive without being intrusive, so we stayed for a relaxed three-hour dinner."

The revised version replaces vague adjectives (nice, good) with specific ones and removes repeated intensifiers. This is a good habit for essays too: instead of "a very important issue", ask what kind of importance is meant (urgent, widespread, long-standing).

Adjectives in different kinds of writing

Academic writing. Avoid vague evaluative adjectives (good, bad, big, interesting) unless you back them up. "A substantial increase" is stronger when followed by evidence. In literature reviews, adjectives such as significant have a technical meaning in statistics, so use them only when you mean it.

Workplace writing. Emails, CVs and cover letters benefit from concrete adjectives (bilingual, certified, cross-functional) rather than empty ones (hard-working, dynamic). Show the evidence in a following clause.

Creative writing. Choose adjectives that engage the senses (gritty, velvety, sour) and avoid piling up several in a row.

Exams. Many English-language tests ask you to put adjectives in the correct order, choose between -ed and -ing, or form comparatives. Practise with short drills before the test.

Quiz: test yourself

Choose the correct option.

1. She has a ______ cat. (a) black small (b) small black (c) smalls black
2. The film was ______. (a) bored (b) boring (c) bore
3. This is the ______ day of the year. (a) most hot (b) hottest (c) more hot
4. He wore a ______ jacket. (a) leather brown old (b) old brown leather (c) brown old leather
5. My brother is ______ than me. (a) more tall (b) taller (c) tallest
6. We stayed in a ______ hotel. (a) five-stars (b) five-star (c) five stars
7. There are ______ people in the queue today. (a) less (b) fewer (c) much
8. Which sentence has the right punctuation? (a) a long, dark, road (b) a long, dark road (c) a long dark, road

Answers

1. (b) Size comes before colour.
2. (b) The film causes the feeling.
3. (b) One-syllable adjective, so -est, doubling the t.
4. (b) Age, colour, material.
5. (b) Comparative with than.
6. (b) Compound adjective before a noun stays singular.
7. (b) People is countable.
8. (b) Long and dark are the same kind and take a comma; dark road has no comma.

Using AdeptWrite tools

The Grammar Checker can flag errors such as "more better", an adjective with a plural -s, or a wrong adjective-adverb choice, and it highlights each change so you can accept or reject it. The Spell Checker checks spelling against American, British, Australian or Canadian English word lists, which helps with forms such as grey/gray and colour/color. If a paragraph is full of vague words, try the Sentence Rewriter to see alternatives, then pick the adjective that is accurate for your meaning, because the tool does not know your facts.

← All guides