Adjectives – Order of Adjectives

In your English lessons, I bet you have heard of the word adjective quite often. But, what is an adjective, anyway?

Well, before we define what an adjective is, I would like to invite you to talk a little bit about Mei Mei (a character in Upin Ipin). I hope you know her. If you don’t, please watch Upin Ipin J.

Right. what do you think about her? She is …

Smart, beautiful, Chinese, short, kind-hearted and others.

Now, the words used to describe Mei Mei, they are adjectives. So, an adjective is a word used to describe a noun. The noun in the example is Mei Mei.

The following are more examples of adjectives:

·         Tony is lazy.

·         This green book is hers.

·         My father is hard-working and honest.

·         That white sport car is very expensive.

Now, a problem appears when there are several adjectives used in the same sentence to describe a noun. Please observe this case:

Bag : The price is expensive. It is made of leather. The colour is black. The size is small.

Now, how would you order all the adjectives so that they can all go in one same sentence?

Which of these do you think is correct?

a.       It is a black expensive small leather bag.

b.      It is an expensive small black leather bag.

c.       It is a small black expensive leather bag.

The answer is … (find it on your own J )

So, yes, there is a rule that deals with the right order of adjectives. Below is the rule that I adopt from http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adjective_order.htm.

Quite complicated, isn’t it? But I have a tip for you. What I would do is to make the acronym of it. And I get DOSSHA COMP. You know, in Bahasa. it rhymes with dosa komp(uter), which means the sins of a computer. It sounds funny and meaningful. So, it’s easier to remember.

  

And yes, I change the Qualifier into Purpose. It’s just easier to make the acronym.

Okay… Time for some practice, I suppose. Just like a proverb says “Practice makes perfect”.

Put the following adjectives into a good order.

1.       Tania is sitting at a / wooden / round table.

2.       Who is that / tall / beautiful /young woman?

3.       Did you see cotton / old / my / white shirt?

4.       Luckily, I could find plastic / a / black / small bag?

5.       They are looking for gold / Swiss /beautiful/ a watch?

Have fun…

You can write your answers in the comment box. I will check them for you. Cheers.