Dalcurian adjective hierarchy

Homepage

Return to Dalcurian Adjectives

In English, when we use more than one adjective in succession, there tends to be a particular order that each adjective follows according to its descriptive nature, (although this is not a static rule of grammar). Look at these sentences:

• The beautiful, tall Italian lady.
• Her short, black, shiny hair.
• Those square wooden hat boxes.
• Some delicious, Thai food.
• That dilapitated, little hunting cabin.
• A wonderful, old British touring car.
• An expensive, antique, silver mirror.

Each of the adjectives have a certain descriptive feature and normally follow one another in a set pattern:

determiner	observation	physical description	origin	material	qualifier	noun
the	beautiful	tall	Italian			lady