099 : Adjectives: a nice new house, you look tired

   A   

Sometimes we use two or more adjectives together:

• My brother lives in a nice new house.
• In the kitchen there was a beautiful large round wooden table.

 

Adjectives like new/large/round/wooden are fact adjectives. They give us factual information about age, size, colour etc.

 

Adjectives like nice/beautiful are opinion adjectives. They tell us what somebody thinks of something or somebody.

 

Opinion adjectives usually go before fact adjectives.

 

	opinion	fact
a	nice	long	summer holiday
an	interesting  delicious	young  hot	man  vegetable soup
a	beautiful	large round wooden	table

 

 

   B   

Sometimes we use two or more fact adjectives together. Usually (but not always) we put fact adjectives in this order:

 

(1) how big? → (2) how old? → (3) what colour? → (4) where from? → (5) what is it made of?    NOUN

     a tall young man (1 → 2)
     big blue eyes (1 → 3)
     a small black plastic bag (1 → 3 → 5)
     a large wooden table (1 → 5)
     an old Russian song (2 → 4)
     an old white cotton shirt (2 → 3 → 5)

 

Adjectives of size and length (big/small/tall/short/long etc.) usually go before adjectives of shape and width (round/fat/thin/slim/wide etc.):

     a large round table
     a tall thin girl
     a long narrow street

 

When there are two or more colour adjectives, we use and:

     a black and white dress
     a red, white and green flag

This does not usually happen with other adjectives before a noun:

     a long black dress (not a long and black dress)

 

 

   C   

We use adjectives after be/get/become/seem:

• Be careful!
• I'm tired and I'm getting hungry.
• As the film went on, it became more and more boring.
• Your friend seems very nice.

 

We also use adjectives to say how somebody/something looks, feels, sounds, tastes or smells:

• You look tired. / I feel tired. / She sounds tired.
• The dinner smells good.
• This tea tastes a bit strange.

 

But to say how somebody does something you must use an adverb (see Units 100- 101):

• Drive carefully! (not Drive careful)
• Susan plays the piano very well. (not plays ... very good)

 

 

   D   

We say 'the first two days / the next few weeks / the last ten minutes' etc. :

• I didn't enjoy the first two days of the course. (not the two first days)
• They'll be away for the next few weeks. (not the few next weeks)