ADJECTIVE ORDER-SIZE-SHAPE

Welcome back to the Daily Vitamin. I hope your day is going well. 

Yesterday we started the topic of Adjective Order. We looked at two general categories of adjectives: opinion adjectives and fact adjectives.

Remember that we usually state opinions before facts. Opinion ⇒ Fact ⇒ NOUN

There are many different categories of fact adjectives and these categories also have a specific order. Today we will look at one sub-category of fact adjectives.

Fact Adjectives (Position 1): Adjectives of Size
Fact adjectives that answer the question how big? usually go in the first position when there are two or more fact adjectives in a sentence. Adjectives of size give information about length, width and shape. If we have two or more adjectives of size together, we usually give information about size or length (big, short, tall, long, etc.) before information about shape or width (round, square, fat, thin, wide, narrow etc.)

If you use an opinion adjective and some fact adjectives of size to describe someone or something, the adjective order is: OPINION FACT (size-length) FACT (shape-width) NOUN

Remember, commas are usually written between adjectives but not between the last adjective and the noun.

Example 1: Donny is my handsome (opinion), tall (size), and thin (width) cousin.

Example 2: Isn't this a beautiful, big, round kitchen table? I bought it at the antique shop.

Example 3: Emily lives on a charming, short, narrow lane.

I encourage you to post your own original sentence with three adjectives (one opinion adjective and two fact adjectives) on one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky) and we will give you feedback ASAP. 

Enjoy the rest of your day!