It is very common to use more than one adjective before a noun in a sentence. Remember, when we use more than one adjective before a noun, we need to put them in right order, according to their type.
1. The overall rule is that opinion adjectives come before fact adjectives. If an adjective can be proven, it is a fact adjective, and comes later. If an adjective is based on someone's own perception, it is an opinion adjective, and comes first.
2. Fact adjectives typically follow this order: size, shape, age, color, origin, material, purpose
3. There are some words you may not even realize are adjectives. These are called determiners, and they come first in the sentence. This includes:
To summarize:
Article | Opinion | Size | Shape | Age | Color | Origin | Material | Purpose/Qualifier | Noun |
a | lovely | old | red | post | |||||
an | old | Italian | race | car | |||||
a | charming | small | silver | ring |
A purpose or qualifier is often considered part of the noun. When you put a purpose or qualifier with a noun, the result is similar to a compound word.
race car
Note: These rules aren't set in stone. This is just how people typically use them. Sometimes people will use a different order for emphasis.
If you have a series of adjectives in a row, sometimes you need commas between then, and sometimes you don't. How do you know the difference?
You need to determine if they are coordinate adjectives or non coordinate adjectives.
This could be rewritten as:
Or as:
This could NOT be rewritten as:
Or as:
Article | Opinion | Size | Shape | Age | Color | Origin | Material | Purpose/Qualifier | Noun |
a | lovely | old | red | post | |||||
an | old | Italian | race | car | |||||
a | charming | small | silver | ring |