Order of Adjectives
Why it's "a lovely old red bus" and not "a red old lovely bus".
Native speakers don't think about this. They just know that a big red bus sounds right and a red big bus sounds strange. You can learn the feeling too. And in real life you'll rarely use more than two or three adjectives together.
adjectives කිහිපයක් එකට එනකොට ඒවා එන්න ඕනෙ පිළිවෙළක් තියෙනවා: අදහස → ප්රමාණය → වයස → හැඩය → පාට → සම්භවය → ද්රව්යය → අරමුණ. ඒත් සාමාන්යයෙන් අපි එකට පාවිච්චි කරන්නේ දෙකක් තුනක් විතරයි.
The order
| # | Type | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Opinion (what you think) | lovely, beautiful, delicious, ugly, nice |
| 2 | Size | big, small, tall, huge, tiny |
| 3 | Age | old, new, young, ancient |
| 4 | Shape | round, square, long, flat |
| 5 | Colour | red, green, white, golden |
| 6 | Origin (where from) | Sri Lankan, Japanese, Indian |
| 7 | Material (made of) | wooden, cotton, silk, brass |
| 8 | Purpose (what it's for) | cooking (pot), sleeping (bag), running (shoes) |
A trick: opinions first, facts after. And the closer an adjective is to the noun, the more it's part of what the thing is.
In the right order
- a beautiful old red train
- a lovely green silk saree
- a big old round wooden table
- delicious Sri Lankan food
- a small brass oil lamp
- a pair of new white running shoes
Commas and "and"
- Two opinion words can take a comma or and: a long, boring meeting / a long and boring meeting.
- Adjectives from different groups don't need commas: a big old red bus.
- After a verb, use and before the last one: The bus was big, old and red.
Quick check
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He wore a shirt to the wedding.
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