An adjective qualifies or describes a noun. But you probably have been in situations where a stranger called at your home and asked you to deliver a message to your mom and you forgot all about it and the name of the stranger. Nonetheless, you attempted to describe the person using features such as the height (tall like this), the size (and fat like this) and the colour of the skin (dark/fair).
In an attempt to tell your mom about this stranger, you have used more than one adjective, three adjectives, to describe just one person. When this is the case (i.e. when you use more than one adjective to describe a noun), there is an order that the adjectives follow. Let's consider this order:
determiners/NASWASCONM+ING
determiners include: a, an, the, some, etc
1. Number
Number in English can be ordinals (i.e. first, second, third, etc.) or cardinals (i.e. one, two, three, etc.). When ordinals and cardinals are to be used to describe a noun, it is the ordinals that should come first. Thus, it is correct to say
i. The first three ladies
ii. The first three bags
2. Attribute
Examples of attributes in English include: beautiful, handsome, pretty, cute, nice, kind, attractive, etc.
We can expand the example above thus:
i. The first three beautiful ladies
ii. The first three attractive bags
3. Size/Weight
Size or weight refers to any or all of the following: tall, big, small, long, short, huge, lanky, slim, thin, robust, stout, large, heavy, light, medium-sized, etc. We can expand the example above thus:
i. The first three beautiful tall ladies
ii. The first three attractive small bags
4. Age
Examples include: old, new, young, traditional, orthodox, primitive, modern, contemporary, antique, obsolete, etc. We can expand the example above thus:
i. The first three beautiful tall young ladies
ii. The first three attractive small antique bags
5. Shape
Examples include: rectangular, triangular, spherical, round, flat, etc. Mostly none of the examples listed can describe a person but, of course, can be used to describe a thing (i.e. a rectangular tank). However, English people have descriptives for someone's face. They include: heart-shaped, square, round. Thus you can talk specifically about someone's face thus:
heart-shaped/square/round/oval face
We shall therefore leave this out in the expansion of our first example.
i. The first three attractive small antique rectangular bags
For more on descriptives for hair, eyes, etc., you can head over to...
6. Colour
All colours fall under this example, including the colour of the skin, such as fair, dark, white, red, etc. We can expand our example thus:
i. The first three beautiful tall young fair ladies
ii. The first three attractive small antique rectangular blue bags
7. Origin/Nationality
Examples include: Nigerian, African, African-American, Chinese, Jewish, British, Togolese, French, Italian, etc. We can expand our example thus:
i. The first three beautiful tall young fair Nigerian ladies
ii. The first three attractive small antique rectangular blue Chinese bags
8. Material
Examples include: leather, silk, cotton, wooden, iron, plastic, etc.
The first three attractive small antique rectangular blue Chinese leather bags
9. -ING
Examples include: writing, cooking, washing, etc.
writing materials
cooking ingredients
It is not usually common to have the -ing in the order of adjectives.
Practice Exercises
1. The portrait was designed by a/an........
A. artist intelligent young Nigerian
B. intelligent young artist Nigerian
C. intelligent young Nigerian artist
D. Nigerian artist young intelligent
E. young intelligent Nigerian artist
2. She bought a.......handbag.
A. red beautiful leather
B. beautiful leather red
C. beautiful red leather
D. leather beautiful red
3. The tourist bought .......
A. a brown small Nigerian earthen pot
B. a small brown Nigerian earthen pot
C. an earthen brown small Nigerian pot
D. a Nigerian small brown earthen pot
4. The brave hunter killed the.......in the forest.
A. big spitting cobra black
B. black big spitting cobra
C. big black spitting cobra
D. big spitting black cobra
5. The shipping company advertised for......accountants.
A. two young, but highly competent Nigerian
B. young, but highly competent two Nigerian
C. two Nigerian, young, but highly competent
D. highly competent, but young, two Nigerian
Suggested related previous posts
Adjectival phrase:
Identifying adjectival clause: http://olabanjititles.blogspot.com/2017/10/grammar-point.html?m=1
Thank you for reading.
0 Comments