English Grammar Drills

Adjectives 25
13. physical
14. strange
15. probable
16. recent
17. available
18. developed
19. shady
20. fulfilling
Sequence of multiple true adjectives
We often use two or three true adjectives to modify a single noun. For example, consider the following
phrase:
huge old white house
Here the adjectives huge, old, and white all modify the noun house.
When multiple true adjectives modify the same noun, there is a fixed left-to-right order to
the adjectives based on their meaning. For example, we cannot change the order of the adjectives
in the above example without being ungrammatical:
X huge white old house
X white huge old house
X white old huge house
X old huge white house
X old white huge house
Generalizing these examples to whole categories of adjectives, we can make the following rule
about order of true adjectives based on meaning:
Size Age Color Noun
large old dingy apartment building
small new paisley shirt
tiny ancient grey car