Order of Adjectives

There is a conventional order of adjectives when more than one is used to modify a noun.
 

Size Age Opinion  Color Material Origin Purpose
big  old ugly red leather Mexican riding 
  Note: it is very unusual to use this many adjectives in a string. This is for illustration. Here are some more "normal" illustrations:
 
a big red balloon an old foreign car
a sharp hunting knife a beautiful white horse

Here are some adjectives of size:
 

big small tall short
skinny fat tiny huge
medium-sized miniature enormous long
short little large

Age:
 

old  young ancient  new-born
middle-aged teen-aged infant two-year-old
elderly

Opinion:
 

beautiful ugly  intelligent stupid 
dumb evil angelic lazy 
industrious nice bad good 

Color:
 

red green blue yellow
white black orange purple
pink pinkish grey etc.

Material:
 

leather wood brick steel
rubber linoleum rattan mud
earthen aluminum ceramic plastic
glass paper cotton silk
wool woolen polyester linen

Purpose:
 

hunting writing swimming driving
running listening riding walking

Practice #1
Participial Adjectives

(c)David Tillyer 1998