| 释义 |
Contents overview order of adjectivesAdjectives184 order of adjectivesWhen several adjectives come before a noun (or when nouns are used as modifiers before another noun), they are usually put in a more or less fixed order. However, this is a complicated grammatical area, and it is not possible to give simple reliable rules for adjective order. The following guidelines will help.1description before classification: an old political ideaWords which describe come before words which classify (say what type of thing we are talking about).| | description | classification | noun | |
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| an | old | political | idea | (not a political old idea) | | the | latest | educational | reform | (not the educational latest reform) | | a | green | wine | bottle | (not a wine green bottle) | | | leather | dancing | shoes | (not dancing leather shoes) |
2opinion before description: a wonderful old houseWords which express opinions, attitudes and judgements usually come before words that simply describe. Examples are lovely, definite, pure, absolute, extreme, perfect, wonderful, silly.| | opinion | description | noun | |
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| a | lovely | cool | drink | (not a cool lovely drink) | | a | wonderful | old | house | (not an old wonderful house) | | | beautiful | green | mountains | (not green beautiful mountains) | | that | silly | fat | cat | (not that fat silly cat) |
3order of descriptive wordsThe order of descriptive words is not completely fixed. Words for origin and material usually come last. Words for size, age, shape and colour often come in that order.| | size | age | shape | colour | origin | material | noun |
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| a | fat | old | | white | | | horse | | a | big | | | grey | | woollen | sweater | | | | new | | | Italian | | boots | | a | small | | round | black | | leather | handbag | | an | enormous | | | brown | German | glass | mug | | a | little | modern | square | | | brick | house |
4numbersNumbers usually go before adjectives.six large eggsthe second big shockFirst, next and last most often go before one, two, three, etc.the first three days my last two jobs5noun modifiers after adjectivesNote that noun modifiers (which often classify, or refer to material) usually follow adjectives.a big new car factoryenormous black iron gates6commasBefore nouns, we generally use commas between adjectives (especially in longer sequences) which give similar kinds of information, as in physical descriptions.a steep, slippery, grassy slopean expensive, ill-planned, wasteful projectBut commas can be dropped before short common adjectives.a tall(,) dark(,) handsome cowboyWe do not use commas between adjectives which give different kinds of information.an attractive traditional woollen dressCommas are not used after numbers or other determiners.ten green bottles (not ten, green bottles)these new ideas (not these, new ideas)For more details, 296.9.7after a verbThe order of adjectives in predicative position (after be, seem and similar verbs, 11) is similar to the order before nouns. Note that noun modifiers are not used in this position. a big, green wine bottle The bottle is big, green and wine.For and with adjectives before nouns and after verbs, 185.Previous Next |