What is the Order of Adjectives?
When you construct a sentence and want to use more than one descriptive adjective to describe a single noun, you cannot just throw those adjectives in at random. English demands that consecutive adjectives follow a specific, unspoken sequence known as the Order of Adjectives.
If you mess up this order, the sentence will be grammatically understandable, but it will sound extremely weird and jarring to fluent speakers. For instance, saying the small green French car sounds perfectly normal. But saying the French green small car sounds horribly wrong. The Order of Adjectives dictates exactly why that is.
The OSASCOMP Rule
To memorize the correct sequence, many learners use an acronym like OSASCOMP (or similar variations) to remember the sequence of descriptive tags.
- Opinion: beautiful, delicious, expensive, ugly, fantastic
- Size: small, huge, tiny, massive, long, short
- Age: old, new, ancient, teenage, young
- Shape: round, square, flat, rectangular, circular
- Color: red, blue, dark, pale, blonde
- Origin: French, American, lunar, Victorian
- Material: wooden, metal, plastic, silk, leather
- Purpose: sleeping (bag), racing (car), sports (shoes)
Order of Adjectives Structure and Formula
The structure focuses entirely on how you organize the space immediately before the noun being described (the attributive position).
The Full Sequential Formula
While it is incredibly rare that you will ever use all eight categories at once, here is the master formula.
* Formula: Subject + Verb + (Determiner) + [Opinion + Size + Age + Shape + Color + Origin + Material + Purpose] + Noun (Object)
It was an ugly, small, old, rectangular, brown, German, wooden, dining table.
(S = It, V = was, Determiner = an... Noun = table)
A Realistic Formula (2-3 Adjectives)
In real life, people generally cap their descriptions at two or three adjectives. You just skip the categories you don't need, maintaining the left-to-right order for the ones you do use.
Examples of shortened formulas:
She wore a beautiful red silk dress.
(Opinion: beautiful ➔ Color: red ➔ Material: silk)He bought a large old Italian painting.
(Size: large ➔ Age: old ➔ Origin: Italian)
How to Tell the Difference Between Cumulative and Coordinate Adjectives
When stacking adjectives, you also need to know whether to use commas. This depends on whether your adjectives are cumulative (building on each other) or coordinate (equal in status).
1. Cumulative Adjectives (Follow the OSASCOMP order)
When adjectives come from different categories on the OSASCOMP list (e.g., Opinion + Size + Color), they are cumulative. They build up to describe the noun.
Rule: Do NOT use commas between cumulative adjectives.
A beautiful big white dog. (Not: A beautiful, big, white dog)
2. Coordinate Adjectives (Do NOT depend on OSASCOMP)
When adjectives come from the same category—usually Opinion—they carry equal weight.
Rule: You MUST separate coordinate adjectives using commas or the word "and". You can test this by reversing their order; if the sentence still makes sense, they are coordinate.
It was a cold, dark, stormy night. (All opinions/general descriptions. You could easily say: A stormy, dark, cold night).
Real-life Examples of Order of Adjectives Usage
Describing lost property or giving a police report:
"I lost my wallet. It's a small, new, black, leather wallet holding all my cash." (Size ➔ Age ➔ Color ➔ Material)
Complimenting someone's fashion or home:
"I absolutely love that gorgeous, antique, French, dining table you bought yesterday." (Opinion ➔ Age ➔ Origin ➔ Purpose)
Describing a pet:
"We adopted a cute, tiny, young, black and white kitten from the shelter." (Opinion ➔ Size ➔ Age ➔ Color)
Summary & Cheatsheet for Order of Adjectives
When in doubt, use this quick-reference table. Ask yourself: does this word describe what I think about it, or an absolute physical fact about it? Opinions always go first, physical facts always go next, and what it's made of/what it's for always goes last.
| Number | Category | Example | Right placement | Wrong placement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Determiner | a, an, the, my | My shoes | Shoes my |
| 2. | Opinion | ugly, great | A great big house | A big great house |
| 3. | Size | big, tiny | A big old house | An old big house |
| 4. | Age | old, young | An old red car | A red old car |
| 5. | Shape | round, flat | A round wooden tray | A wooden round tray |
| 6. | Color | red, blue | A red Italian car | An Italian red car |
| 7. | Origin | Italian, Asian | An Italian leather bag | A leather Italian bag |
| 8. | Material | leather, wood | A leather riding boot | A riding leather boot |
| 9. | Purpose | riding, sleeping | A sleeping bag | A bag sleeping |
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Wait, do native speakers actually memorize this OSASCOMP acronym?
No. Native speakers do not know this rule exists intellectually; they simply acquire it intuitively through thousands of hours of listening as toddlers. If you ask a native speaker why they arranged adjectives in a certain way, they won't be able to tell you. They will just say, "It sounds right."
2. Can I use more than three adjectives before a noun?
You can, grammatically. However, stylistically, it is highly discouraged. Stacking four or five adjectives before a noun makes your sentence heavy, bulky, and difficult to process. If you have that much detail, it is better to break it into a separate sentence using a linking verb (e.g., She wore a beautiful red silk dress. It was extremely old and French.).
3. What do I do if I have two adjectives from the same exact category?
If you have two colors, two materials, or two origins, you treat them as coordinate adjectives. This means you must separate them with the word and, or use commas.
For example: A black and white cat. OR A cotton and polyester shirt.
4. I see exceptions to this rule in literature sometimes. Why?
While the rule applies 95% of the time, writers occasionally break it for poetic emphasis or rhythm. A famous exception is the Big Bad Wolf (which breaks the Size-Opinion rule to favor rhythm). However, until you are fully fluent, you should stick strictly to the formula.