Adjective Order Introduction ________________________________________ In English, it is common to use more than one adjective before a noun -- for exa

mple, "He's a silly young fool," or "she's a smart, energetic woman." When you u se more than one adjective, you have to put them in the right order, according t o type. This page will explain the different types of adjectives and the correct order for them. ________________________________________ The basic types of adjectives Opinion An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other peop le may not agree with you). Examples: silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult Size A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is. Ex amples: large, tiny, enormous, little Age An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is. Exa mples: ancient, new, young, old Shape A shape adjective describes the shape of something. Examples: square, round, flat, rectangular Colour A colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something. Exampl es: blue, pink, reddish, grey Origin An origin adjective describes where something comes from. Examples: French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek Material A material adjective describes what something is made from. Exam ples: wooden, metal, cotton, paper Purpose A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectiv es often end with "-ing". Examples: sleeping (as in "sleeping bag"), roasting (as in "roasting tin") ________________________________________ Some examples of adjective order Opinion Size Age Shape Colour Origin Material Purpose a silly young English man a huge round metal bowl a small red sleeping bag When you are sure that you understand the topic, you can click on "First exercis e" below to continue. 410 Grammar: Adjective Order Click on the correct answer

________________________________________ 1 Which is the correct order? a small Canadian thin lady a Canadian small thin lady a small thin Canadian lady a thin small Canadian lady ________________________________________ 2 Which is the correct order?

a carving steel new knife a new steel carving knife a steel new carving knife a new carving steel knife ________________________________________ 3 Which is the correct order? a beautiful blue sailing boat a blue beautiful sailing boat a sailing beautiful blue boat a blue sailing beautiful boat ________________________________________ 4 Which is the correct order? an old wooden square table a square wooden old table an old square wooden table a wooden old square table ________________________________________ 5 Which is the correct order? an new French exciting band a French new exciting band an exciting French new band an exciting new French band ________________________________________ 6 Which is the correct order? a red big plastic hat a big red plastic hat a plastic big red hat a bit plastic red hat ________________________________________ 7 Which is the correct order? a small Japanese serving bowl a Japanese small serving bowl a small serving Japanese bowl

a serving small Japanese bowl ________________________________________ 8 Which is the correct order? a cotton dirty old tie a dirty cotton old tie an old cotton dirty tie a dirty old cotton tie 410 Grammar: Adjective Order Type the correct noun phrase, putting the adjectives in order. ________________________________________ 1. round / small / reading / lamp

________________________________________ 2. German / old / yellow / car

________________________________________ 3. wooden / huge / sailing / ship

________________________________________ 4. physics / boring / old / teacher

________________________________________ 5. slim / Canadian / handsome / snowboarder

________________________________________ 6. sugar / blue / round / bowl

________________________________________

Prepositions of Place and Time Introduction The following information and rules will help you use prepositions of place and time correctly. Prepositions of Place (Location/Destination) 1. Use on with lines and surfaces. Vancouver is on the west coast of Canada. line Put the vase on the table. surface They were sitting on the grass. surface 2. Use in with areas that have boundaries and enclosed places.

I was born in England, but I grew up in Canada. areas that have boundaries We had a picnic in the park last Saturday. enclosed place I think I left my keys in the bedroom. enclosed place 3. Use arrive + at with activities, buildings and general locations. Everyone arrived at the picnic at the same time. activity The tour group will arrive at the Empire State Building at three o'clock. build ing The bus arrived at the station earlier than we expected. location 4. Use arrive + in with countries, states and cities. Which month did you arrive in Victoria? 5. Prepositions are not used with the following locations or destinations: overseas, inside, here, home, upstairs, downtown, abroad, outside, there, where, downstairs 6. Some other prepositions of location are: next to, beside, between, in front o f, under. On my desk, the telephone is next to the lamp. The computer monitor is beside the lamp. The speaker is between the telephone and the monitor. The keyboard is in front of the monitor. The computer is under the desk. 7. Use to, into, and onto to show movement. When our car broke down, we walked to the nearest gas station. The delivery people carried the new couch into the living room. The man slipped, and fell onto the couch. Note: The opposite of to is from / the opposite of into is out of / the opposite of s off. 8. Some other prepositions which show movement are: through, across, up, down, a long, past The train went through a tunnel. When the forest fire started, the deer swam across the river to safety. We walked up/down/along the street until we found a restaurant. The parade went past city hall and ended at the new arena. Prepositions of Time 1. Use at for specific times. The movie starts at 7:00. 2. Use in with months, seasons, and years. We got married in December. Most people prefer to get married in the spring or summer, but we chose to get m arried in the winter. Note: We say in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening, but we say at night nd by day. 3. Use on for days and dates. I had to work late on Wednesday, so I missed the bus. day Diane's friends held a party for her on her birthday. date 4. Use since to say when an activity began, and for to say how long it has been goin g on. He has been president of the company since 2003. We have been waiting for twenty minutes. I have lived here for two years. Note: The present perfect is often used with since and for to talk about activities which began in the past and continue in the present. When you are sure that you understand the lesson, you can continue with the exer cises.

Welcome to this week's writing lesson from MyEnglishTeacher.net Are you writing a report, typing a letter, or building a Web site? If so, you m ust have tons of questions about English grammar. That's why we are pleased to

make the following book recommendations This is a terrific book that explains how to correctly use grammar (basic to adv anced). The author discusses lots of problematic areas and how to correct them. Click here for more information.

This is another terrific book which covers intermediate to advanced grammar and writing skills. This helpful guide discusses tips on creating sentences and ess ays. Click here for more information. Click here to see more English grammar and writing books. Can you describe what it looks like? Lesson Topic: Using Adjectives and the Order of Adjectives Let's say you want to buy a new car. You could not go to the car dealer and say , "I have been dreaming about having a car for a long time. I know exactly what I want. Please give it to me." Of course he would think you are a bit crazy, but he would also ask you a very i mportant question: "What does your dream car look like?" You would need to desc ribe it to the car dealer, or you simply wouldn't get the car you had been dream ing about. You would most likely get the automobile the dealer couldn't sell. That wouldn't be a dream car; it would be a nightmare! Fortunately, you could use words to describe the car of your dreams. The words that describe things are called adjectives. Adjectives describe nouns (nouns ar e people, places, and things). Adjectives are a terrific way to make your writi ng a lot more interesting, too. Take a look at the following sentence: I want to buy a car. Is this an interesting sentence? Does it describe the kind of car you want to b uy? The answers are NO and NO! The listener/reader doesn't know what kind of c ar you want. Do you want a big car or little car? Fast or slow? Red or blue? Old or new? It is quite unclear. It is also poor writing because it is very b oring. Would you buy a book that was written like this? Probably not. Unfortu nately, many students and writers write like this. It is a very common problem which is quite easy to fix. So what kind of car do you want? Well, um, . . . I want to buy a blue car. I want to buy a new car. I want to buy a European car. I want to buy a beautiful car. Did you find the adjectives? They are the words that describe the car. The adj ectives above are blue, new, European, and beautiful. The above 4 sentences are written as if the writer wants 4 different cars. However, if the writer just w ants 1 car, how would he/she combine the sentences into 1 sentence? The writer needs to put all of the adjectives together. Therefore, we get I want to buy a blue, new, European, beautiful car. How's that? Are there any problems? YES, there are problems! The ORDER of ectives is quite important in English. There is an order of adjectives that ive speakers of English normally follow. The list below shows how the order adjectives is usually presented; however, there are exceptions and different binations depending on the situation. OPINION APPEARANCE AGE COLOR ORIGIN MATERIAL good bad beautiful ugly adj nat of com

smart dumb

usually follows this order:

size/measure big small high low shape round circular square condition broken cracked ripped fresh rotten new antique old young two-year-old* purple pink dark green navy blue Chinese French Italian American brass cotton gold wooden vegetable

red

Korean

iron

*Adjectives are never plural. Therefore, when the adjective contains a number a nd noun, the noun associated with the number is singular. This is a three-year-old car. CORRECT This is a three-years-old car. INCORRECT

Using the above list, we can put all four adjectives together to get the followi ng sentence: I want to buy a beautiful, new, blue, European car. Adding adjectives is very important if you want to make your writing more intere sting. It helps the reader/listener form a picture in his/her mind. For example, which of these two sentences is more descriptive and interesting? Which draws a picture in the reader's mind? 1 I want to buy a car. -OR2 I want to buy a beautiful, new, blue, European car. Of course the second sentence is more descriptive and interesting. The reader c an see the car in his/her mind. If you would like to learn more ways to make y

our writing interesting, please see our other lessons on this topic. Just go to http://www.MyEnglishTeacher.net/previous.html. Quiz Directions: Look at the following sentences and adjectives. Rewrite the sentenc es using the adjectives in blue. Be sure to write them in the correct order. 1. Aunt Betty wants a coffee table. (stone, square, gray) 2. The king took a trip. (2-week, exhausting) 3. These are cookies! (chocolate chip, delicious, huge) 4. Alice prefers furniture. (leather, Italian, black) 5. Archeologists get very excited when they find bones. (animal, large, prehis toric)

1. Aunt Betty wants a square, gray, stone coffee table. 2. The king took an exhausting, 2-week trip. *exhausting refers to opinion 3. These are delicious, huge, chocolate chip cookies! *chocolate chip refers to a material used to make the cookies 4. Alice prefers black, Italian, leather furniture. 5. Archeologists get very excited when they find large, prehistoric, animal bon es. *prehistoric refers to age Rules to Remember! 1 Use commas after each adjective except the last one (no comma between th e last adjective and the noun). For example, Alice prefers black, Italian, leather furniture. 2 If an adjective has 2 words, do not put a comma between the words. For example, These are delicious, huge, chocolate chip cookies! 3 It is not necessary to use adjectives with all nouns. It is suggested t hat you use adjectives to describe things that are important to both the writer and the reader.