Order of adjective phrases – grammar activities

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Order of adjective phrases – grammar activities

As wel all know , in English there is a preferred order of adjectives preceeding a noun. For example, we'd rather say " a big brown box" not "a brown big box".

Even though saying the latter is not going to break the communication in any way, it is always good to stick to some well accepted rules.

Below you will find some tasks based on Cambridge Grammar of English. I have created two grids which will help your students understand the correct order of adjectives.

Note that you start from the left, and go to the right. Therefore, the correct adjective order is:

evaluation
size
physical quality
shape
age
color
participle
origin
material
purpose

One more thing, I've attached a list of long adjective phrases in "excerpt" below. You can cut them out and ask students to work in pairs or groups to make propoer sentences from jumbled words.

Task

TASK1 Write your own adjectives under each heading. (to make sure that students understand what each type, i.e. evaluation, size, physical quality etc., stand for)

TASK2 Describe the objects in the classroom. (to practise, tell students that the easiest way to do this is to write adjectives in the grid without thinking about the correct order and than simply read them all out from the left).

Excerpt

A yellow plastic container was found at the scene of the crime. You need one of those round, wooden, bathing tubs. You need one of those round, Swedish, wooden, bathing tubs. She has got such a fantastic, long memory. These wonderful, monumental, strong, old, grey, Indian, log-carrying elephants of Northern Thailand. [...]