Mercedes' English Class

Let's begin!!!!

Adjective RULES

An adjective is a word that describes something (a noun).An adjective gives us more information about a person or thing.

Adjectives sometimes appear after the verb To Be

The order is To Be + Adjective.

• He is tall.
• She is happy.

Adjectives sometimes appear before a noun.

The order is Adjective + Noun.

• Slow car
• Brown hat

BUT… Sometimes you want to use more than one adjective to describe something (or someone).

So what is the correct order of adjectives before a noun?🤔🤔

The order of adjectives before a noun is usually the following:

Opinion – Size – Age – Shape – Colour – Origin – Material – Purpose

If we take the first letter of each one, it creates OSASCOMP which is an easy way to remember the order.

  Let’s look at an example about describing a bag.

• It is an ugly small old thin red Italian cotton sleeping bag

It is not common to have so many adjectives before a noun, but I do this so you can see the correct order of adjectives.

Ugly is an opinion, small is a size, old refers to age, thin refers to shape, red is a colour, Italian refers to its origin, cotton refers to the material the bag is made of, sleeping is the purpose of the bag.

The order is NOT fixed

IMPORTANT: The order of adjectives before a noun is NOT 100% FIXED.

This chart is only a guide and is the order that is preferred.

You may see or hear slight variations of the order of adjectives in real life though what appears in the chart is the order that is expected the most.

Now, let’s look at adjectives in more detail …

•  VOCABULARY: Compound Adjectives 
• VOCABULARY: Adjectives and prepositions   
• VOCABULARY: Strong Adjectives 
• VOCABULARY: Adjectives ending in -ed and -ing 

HAPPY 

👉 Thrilled, delighted, overjoyed …

• I was absolutely thrilled with my exam result.
• I’m delighted to hear that you will be visiting us this summer.
• You must be overjoyed that you had Mercedes as teacher!😜😜
• Oh yes! I’m over the moon! On cloud nine! I’m thrilled to bits.

BEAUTIFUL  

👉 Stunning, exquisite, attractive, breathtaking.    

• The view from our hotel room was stunning.
• The museum is home to a number of exquisite paintings.
• She’s the most attractive woman I’ve ever seen and her smile is breathtaking.

 VERY GOOD

 👉 Superb, exceptional, top-notch

Both the service and the food were superb.

We were offered a small glass of exceptional vintage red wine on arrival.

Furthermore, ending the evening with live music was top-notch!

CHEAP  

Ten cuidado, porque este adjetivo, puede tener una connotación negativa, dependiendo del contexto. 

👉 Reasonably priced, affordable, inexpensive.

«We stayed in a cheap hotel» No suena nada bien, mucho mejor estas opciones: 

• We spent the night in a reasonably priced hotel.
• It is extremely hard to find an affordable flat in central London. 
• Their honeymoon was inexpensive compared to the wedding. 

 Para referirnos a algo de mala calidad, podemos usar estos adjetivos:

👉 Substandard, inadequate, shoddy, badly made. 

• There were a couple of substandard details. 
• The quality of the sofa is shoddy, I will have to take it back to the shop.
• I’d rather spend more money and buy one item of clothing than plenty of badly made ones . 

BIG  

👉 Enormous, substantial, hefty, massive.

• I found an enormous spider in the bath. Oh I was scared to death!
• I ate a substantial amount of food at the birthday party. 
• The police gave me a hefty fine for running a red light.

SCARY

👉 Horrifying, unnerving, petrifying.

• It was horrifying to fly in such stormy weather.
• How unnerving it was when that vicious dog started barking at me.
• It was petrifying to find a dead rat under the bed.

SMALL 

👉 Tiny, minute, cramped.

• Those apples were tiny and pretty pricey!
•  My family owns a minute farm in North Scotland.
• The conference room was cramped and they didn’t even offer us coffee or water during the meeting.

DIFFICULT 

👉 Arduous, tough, demanding. 

• I managed to finish the exam on time, but it was long and arduous. 
• It was tough to find a pair of shoes that would fit my son.
• Being a fireman is a demanding job.

DIRTY 

👉 Unwashed, grotty, filthy. 

• These forks are unwashed, I will get them replaced.
• I had a look as I passed the kitchen and the cooks look rather grotty.
• I should warn you before you use the bathroom, it’s absolutely filthy. Good luck!