Thursday, February 7, 2008

Order of adjectives

Why is it "the quick, brown fox" and not "the brown, quick fox," or "a fat, green toad" and not "a green, fat toad"?

The order of the adjectives is as follows:

- Determiner - a, an, her, five, many, much several etc.
- Opinion - pretty, ugly, smart, cheap, etc.
- Size - big, fat, thin, tall, large, small etc.
- Shape - circle, square, tall, short etc.
- Age - old, young 10 years, a year, a week, new etc.
- Color - yellow, green, pink etc.
- Origin - American, English, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, European, Chinese etc.
- Material - cotton, wood, plastic, cloth, glass, gold etc.
- Purpose/Qualifier - hat box, sleeping bag, computer table,safe island, football field.

Source: http://www.english-the-easy-way.com/Adjectives/Adjectives_Order.htm