Order of Adjectives

Koko and Pip want to decorate their treehouse... and decided to spruce up the place with some artwork. “What should we paint, Koko?” “I think we should paint a landscape with a couple of objects on it.” "Describe what they look like Koko, so I know what to paint!" "Sure! I'll describe the objects using... “Order of Adjectives.” Nouns are people, places, things, and ideas. Examples are a boy, a house, a car, and luck. ADJECTIVES are words we put in FRONT of nouns that describe them to others. More adjectives mean your descriptions are clearer. When we use several different types of adjectives in a sentence, they have a specific order in which they appear. The type of adjective used affects the order of adjectives. First, we give the NUMBER to describe how many there are. Second, we give our OPINION about the noun. Beautiful, scary, and funny are all examples of opinion adjectives. Third, we describe the size of the noun... such as gigantic or tiny. Fourth, we describe the age... as possibly young or old. Fifth, we describe the shape of the noun. Something could be described as crooked or straight... and sixth, we describe the color. There are more adjectives that are used less... and you don't have to use ALL of these adjectives every time. However, it is important to use the order of adjectives when describing things to others! Let's practice putting some adjectives before a noun. Coco and Pip are putting a tree in their painting. We can give several adjectives to describe what the tree should look like. We have FOUR adjectives for the noun, tree. Using the list, let's put them in order. Do we give a number, or tell how many there are? Yes, there is the article, 'a' that describes that there is one tree. Are any of these adjectives an opinion? Yes, lovely is an opinion so, it is listed next. Which of these words describes the size of the tree? Big so put that after lovely. We also described the age and old is listed next. We didn't use all of the adjective categories, so the noun, tree, comes next. This is a lovely, big, old tree. Notice the commas in this sentence. When listing several adjectives we put commas to separate them. We do not put a comma between the last adjective and the noun. Coco and Pip will also paint some doves. Let’s put these adjectives in the correct order to describe what the doves look like. What is the first adjective we should use to describe the doves? The number, three. What adjective should come next? The opinion that the doves are beautiful is next. What kind of adjective is white? White is a color adjective, so it should go after beautiful. The sentence reads, There are three, beautiful, white doves. Before we see Koko's and Pip's paintings, let's review. Remember... ADJECTIVES are words we put in FRONT of nouns that describe them to others. When we use several different types of adjectives in a sentence, they have a specific order in which they appear. The order of adjectives are... number... opinion... size... age... shape... and color. There are some more adjectives that are used less on the list... and you won't use all of these adjectives every time. but, it is important to use this order of adjectives to communicate clearly with others. "Ok, time for the BIG reveal!" "I have painted a happy tree and gave him some friends." That's lovely!"