English has a fixed adjective order: OPINION + SIZE + AGE + SHAPE + COLOR + ORIGIN + MATERIAL + PURPOSE + NOUN. Violating this order sounds unnatural to native speakers.
The CORRECT ADJECTIVE ORDER in English follows the sequence: (1) OPINION/ASSESSMENT: beautiful, horrible, lovely. (2) SIZE: big, small, large, tiny. (3) AGE: old, young, new, ancient. (4) SHAPE: round, square, flat, long. (5) COLOR: red, blue, dark, light. (6) ORIGIN: French, Italian, Chinese, American. (7) MATERIAL: wooden, metal, silk, plastic. (8) PURPOSE/TYPE: cooking, sleeping (in compounds). (9) NOUN: table, car, house. Example: "A beautiful small old round green French silver antique box" = valid but unusually long. In practice, rarely more than 2-3 adjectives are used together.
The company recently acquired a beautiful old Victorian building in the city center and plans to restore it as a flagship office.
She arrived at the meeting carrying a large black leather briefcase — clearly prepared for a detailed document review session.
The new product line features a sleek rectangular aluminum casing that has been very well received by industrial designers.
INCORRECT ORDER: violating the canonical sequence sounds strange or even comical to native speakers. "A red big car" = sounds incorrect. "A big red car" = correct. "A French old beautiful table" = sounds odd. "A beautiful old French table" = correct (opinion -> age -> origin). Although native speakers rarely learn the rule explicitly, they feel it as "natural" or "strange" intuitively. The order is so fixed that violating the sequence can immediately signal that the speaker is not a native English speaker.
"A Italian old small table" — INCORRECT ORDER. Correct: "A small old Italian table" (size -> age -> origin).
"A round beautiful red ceramic bowl" — INCORRECT ORDER. Correct: "A beautiful round red ceramic bowl" (opinion -> shape -> color -> material).
"A wooden new big conference table" — INCORRECT ORDER. Correct: "A big new wooden conference table" (size -> age -> material).
Common mistake
Most common error: putting COLOR or ORIGIN before SIZE. "A red big car" = INCORRECT. SIZE comes before COLOR: "A BIG RED car." "A German old car" = INCORRECT. AGE comes before ORIGIN: "An OLD GERMAN car." Second frequent error: putting MATERIAL before COLOR or ORIGIN. "A leather brown bag" = sounds wrong. COLOR comes before MATERIAL: "A BROWN LEATHER bag." The acronym OSASCOMP can help memorize the order: Opinion - Size - Age - Shape - Color - Origin - Material - Purpose.
Trick to remember it
The OSASCOMP acronym (Opinion - Size - Age - Shape - Color - Origin - Material - Purpose) is the key. Another way to remember: "OPINION - SIZE - AGE - SHAPE - COLOR - ORIGIN - MATERIAL - FUNCTION." Practice with a shirt example: "a lovely [opinion] small [size] old [age] round-collar [shape] blue [color] Italian [origin] silk [material] dress shirt [noun]." For daily use: the most important to memorize are the first ones: OPINION + SIZE + COLOR + ORIGIN + MATERIAL. These five categories explain the vast majority of cases in everyday English.
Quick rule
Adjective order: Opinion > Size > Age > Shape > Color > Origin > Material > Purpose > Noun. (OSASCOMP). "A beautiful big old round red French wooden coffee table." In practice, use 2-3 maximum in a single phrase.
Did you know?
The article by journalist Mark Forsyth about English adjective order (from the book "The Elements of Eloquence", 2013) went viral in 2016 when quoted on Twitter and shared millions of times. The reason: many NATIVE English speakers had never realized they were unconsciously following this rule. The article showed that "a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife" sounds perfectly natural to any native speaker, but "a silver French green rectangular old little lovely whittling knife" sounds absolutely horrible — despite being the same words. This implicit rule that natives follow without knowing it is one of the most fascinating examples of "unconscious grammar" in the language.
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
Select the sentence with the CORRECT adjective order:
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
The company purchased _____ for their new headquarters:
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Adjective order: Opinion > Size > Age > Shape > Color > Origin > Material > Purpose > Noun. (OSASCOMP). "A beautiful big old round red French wooden coffee table." In practice, use 2-3 maximum in a single phrase.
Most common error: putting COLOR or ORIGIN before SIZE. "A red big car" = INCORRECT. SIZE comes before COLOR: "A BIG RED car." "A German old car" = INCORRECT. AGE comes before ORIGIN: "An OLD GERMAN car." Second frequent error: putting MATERIAL before COLOR or ORIGIN. "A leather brown bag" = sounds wrong. COLOR comes before MATERIAL: "A BROWN LEATHER bag." The acronym OSASCOMP can help memorize the order: Opinion - Size - Age - Shape - Color - Origin - Material - Purpose.
The OSASCOMP acronym (Opinion - Size - Age - Shape - Color - Origin - Material - Purpose) is the key. Another way to remember: "OPINION - SIZE - AGE - SHAPE - COLOR - ORIGIN - MATERIAL - FUNCTION." Practice with a shirt example: "a lovely [opinion] small [size] old [age] round-collar [shape] blue [color] Italian [origin] silk [material] dress shirt [noun]." For daily use: the most important to memorize are the first ones: OPINION + SIZE + COLOR + ORIGIN + MATERIAL. These five categories explain the vast majority of cases in everyday English.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy