THE ORDER OF ADJECTIVES, HOW TO DESCRIBE CORRECTLY

Today, The Grangers and The Grandma have been studying descriptions and the order of adjectives.

An adjective is a word that describes a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Adjectives were considered one of the main parts of speech of the English language, although historically they were classed together with nouns.

Here are some examples:

-That's a funny idea. (attributive)

-That idea is funny. (predicative)

-Tell me something funny. (postpositive)

-The good, the bad, and the funny. (substantive)

More information: Download Adjectives

Adjective comes from Latin nōmen adjectīvum, a calque of Ancient Greek ἐπίθετον ὄνομα, romanized epítheton ónoma, literally additional noun (whence also English epithet).

In the grammatical tradition of Latin and Greek, because adjectives were inflected for gender, number, and case like nouns (a process called declension), they were considered a type of noun.

The words that are today typically called nouns were then called substantive nouns (nōmen substantīvum). The terms noun substantive and noun adjective were formerly used in English but are now obsolete.

In many languages, attributive adjectives usually occur in a specific order.

In general, the adjective order in English can be summarised as: opinion, size, shape, age, colour, origin, material, purpose.

More information: Password

Determiners and postdeterminers -articles, numerals, and other limiters- come before attributive adjectives in English. Although certain combinations of determiners can appear before a noun, they are far more circumscribed than adjectives in their use -typically, only a single determiner would appear before a noun or noun.

-Opinion. Limiter adjectives (e.g. a real hero, a perfect idiot) and adjectives of subjective measure (e.g. beautiful, interesting) or value (e.g. good, bad, costly).

-Size. Adjectives denoting physical size (e.g. tiny, big, extensive).

-Shape or physical quality. Adjectives describing more detailed physical attributes than overall size (e.g. round, sharp, swollen, thin).

-Age. Adjectives denoting age (e.g. young, old, new, ancient, six-year-old).

-Colour. Adjectives denoting colour or pattern (e.g. white, black, pale, spotted).

-Origin. Denominal adjectives denoting source (e.g. Japanese, volcanic, extraterrestrial).

-Material. Denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of (e.g., woollen, metallic, wooden).

-Qualifier/purpose. Final limiter, which sometimes forms part of the (compound) noun (e.g., rocking chair, hunting cabin, passenger car, book cover).

More information: Cambridge Dictionary

A man's character may be learned from the adjectives
which he habitually uses in conversation.

Mark Twain