You may know that adjectives are words that help us describe nouns. They can include everything from descriptive adjectives to possessive adjectives and demonstrative ones, too. But what happens when you want to use more than one adjective to describe the same noun?
In English, adjectives follow a specific order, and this order might be different from what you’re used to in your first language. With this guide and a little practice, you’ll be ready in no time!
In this post:
- Where to put adjectives in English sentences
- How to use multiple adjectives for one noun
- Rules for commas when using multiple adjectives
- How to use multiple adjectives after verbs like be, seem, or look
Where do adjectives go in English?
Before we dive into the details of adjective order, let’s review the typical word order in English. A basic English sentence usually follows this pattern:
Subject + Verb + Object
You can think of this as a sort of formula—with some flexibility. For example, both the subject and the object can be just a single word or multi-word phrases about a noun:
Little kids love cake.
The little kids in his class love cake.
I made two delicious cakes for the class.
Adjectives can also appear after certain verbs, even without a noun. If the sentence has a verb such as be, seem, look, or get, an adjective comes after the verb:
Cake is delicious.
This cake your brother made looks delicious.
How do you use multiple adjectives in English?
Sometimes, a single adjective just doesn’t cut it. Maybe the cake you’re eating is not only round but also delicious. Whenever you want to use more than one adjective to modify a noun, they need to go in a specific order.
So, is it a round delicious cake or a delicious round cake? To answer this question, you’ll need to know which order the different categories of adjectives go in:
Describing a cake as delicious expresses an opinion (position 2), while calling it round describes its shape (position 5). When we combine the two adjectives in the right order, we get:
He made a delicious square cake.
That’s because we order the adjectives according to the positions of the different categories mentioned above:
POSITION CATEGORY ADJECTIVE 1 determiners a 2 opinion delicious 5 shape squareOnce you know the correct order of adjective categories, you can use as many adjectives as you like:
We found these cute little blue buttons.
POSITION CATEGORY ADJECTIVE 1 determiners these 2 opinion cute 3 size little 6 color blueI love your three beautiful huge new round green Japanese clay cooking pots.
POSITION CATEGORY ADJECTIVE 1 determiners your 1 determiners three 2 opinion beautiful 3 size huge 4 age new 5 shape round 6 color green 7 origin Japanese 8 material clay 9 purpose cooking(Okay, this last example might not be the kind of sentence you would hear often, but isn’t it fun to see all those adjectives together?)
Do you need commas when using multiple adjectives?
You may have noticed in the examples above that you typically do not use commas when using multiple adjectives. However, there is one exception:
For example, funny and interesting are both opinion adjectives, so they are separated by a comma:
We saw a funny, interesting movie.
Another way to separate adjectives that belong to the same category is by using the word and between them. For example, the sentence above could also be written as:
We saw a funny and interesting movie.
How do you use multiple adjectives after a verb?
When multiple adjectives appear after a verb such as be, seem, look, smell, etc. (and they are not part of a noun phrase), their order is more flexible. For example, both of the following sentences are correct:
Her shoes look old and dirty.
Her shoes look dirty and old.
If three or more adjectives follow the verb, and is only used before the final adjective. Commas are generally placed between the others:
Their friend is funny, energetic, and kind.
(Sometimes, you won't see a comma before and in lists—this comma is called the Oxford comma, and it's more common in the U.S. and less common in the U.K.)
Adjectives galore!
Whether it’s an adorable little puppy or an enormous magnificent mountain, there’s a whole world out there! Now you can describe it with as many adjectives as you need!
To learn more about adjectives:
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