OXFORD PRACTICE GRAMMAR 105

OXFORD PRACTICE GRAMMAR 105 THE ORDER OF ADJECTIVES A Introduction It's beautiful sunny weather.. We cannot say sunny beautiful weather or a-black big dog B Adjectives and nouns We som

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OXFORD PRACTICE GRAMMAR

105 THE ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

A Introduction

It's beautiful sunny weather Nick has got a big black dog

We can use more than one adjective before a noun There is usually one correct order

We cannot say sunny beautiful weather or a-black big dog

B Adjectives and nouns

We sometimes use two nouns together (see Unit 82)

a glass door a computer program

Here we use glass like an adjective, to describe the door When we use another adjective

as well (e.g heavy), it comes before both the nouns

a heavy glass door a useful computer program

C Word order

We order adjectives according to their meaning This is the normal order: EXAMPLES

GROUP

1 Opinion (how good?)

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2 Size (how big?)

3 Most other qualities

4 Age (how old?)

5 Colour

6 Origin (where from?)

7 Material (made of?)

8 Type (what kind?)

9 Purpose (what for?)

Here are some examples

a small green insect (size, colour) Japanese industrial designers (origin,

type) a wonderful new

face cream (opinion, age, purpose) awful plastic souvenirs (opinion,

material) a long boring train

journey (size, quality, type) some nice easy quiz questions (opinion, quality,

purpose) a beautiful

wooden picture frame (opinion, material, purpose)

We sometimes put commas between adjectives in Groups 1-3

a horrible, ugly building a busy, lively, exciting city

wonderful, nice, great, awful, terrible Adjectives that say how good

large, small, long, short, tall and how big come first

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quiet, famous, important, soft, wet,

difficult, fast, angry, warm

new, old

red, blue, green, black

American, British, French

stone, plastic, steel, paper an

electric kettle, political

matters, road transport a

bread knife, a bath towel

Most adjectives come next if they do

not belong to another group

Some of these are nouns

► big leather boots

1 ……… 3

………

2 ……… 4

………

2 The order of adjectives (A-C)

Write a list of things to be sold at an auction

► basin / sugar, antique, silver an antique silver sugar basin

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1 vase / glass, old, lovely

2 mirror / wall, attractive

3 desk / modern, office

4 chairs / kitchen, red, metal

5 boat / model, splendid, old

6 stamps / postage, valuable, Australian

7 table / small, coffee, wooden

Look at each advertisement and write the information in a single sentence

► This game is new It's for the family And it's exciting

This is an exciting new family game

1 This computer is for business It's Japanese And it's powerful

2 This fire is electric It's excellent And it's small

3 This is a chocolate bar It's new And it's a big bar

4 This comedy is American It's for television And it's terrific

5 These doors are aluminium They're for your garage And they're stylish

6 These shoes are modern They're for sports And they're wonderful This phone is a mobile It's German And it's very good

105 EXERCISES

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Describe the pictures Use these words: boots, building, car, seat, singer