Upper Primary School English Quiz - Grammar 14 - Order of Adjectives 2 (Questions)

Look at the three groups of sentences that follow:

• "I want a handbag."
• "I want a leather handbag."
• "I want a black handbag."
• "I want an Italian handbag."
• "I want a formal handbag."
• "I want a nice handbag."
• "I want a new handbag."

• "I want a nice, black, leather handbag."
• "I want a new, Italian, formal handbag."

• "I want a nice, new, black, Italian, leather, formal handbag."

In the first group of sentences it is clear that the person wants a handbag and she goes on to use different adjectives to describe the kind of handbag she would like. You probably think that the person wants six different handbags, each with different attributes. In the second group your understanding is a little better and you begin to think that the person probably wants two handbags with different sets of attributes, but in the third group it becomes obvious that the person wants one handbag with six attributes in it. All of the six attributes the person wants are described in just one sentence using six different adjectives.

Often, in our daily lives we come across situations where we have to describe many things and usually one adjective is not sufficient to do justice to our description. So, we make use of several adjectives to describe the product or thing. In the above examples we looked at the description of a handbag. Now, in the second and third groups, it appears that the order of adjectives used in the sentences sounds good and reads well. It does so because the use of adjectives follows a certain order. Generally, adjectives follow the attributes of number/quantity, opinion/appearance, size, temperature, age, shape, colour, origin, material and purpose. Of course, these are not the only attributes and also, sometimes the order can be interchanged depending on the information to be provided. Certain conventions are followed and when you take the quiz that follows you will be able to get some insights into how the proper ordering of adjectives improves your sentence structure.