The Royal Order of Adjectives in English
If you hear someone say, “I bought a porcelain blue antique vase,” this sounds a little strange, right? That’s because adjectives usually follow a certain order in English, called the royal order. Native speakers use the order instinctively but don’t always know the rule.
What Is the Royal Order?
The royal order groups adjectives into categories and specifies the usual order in which they're used.
Here’s the usual order:
- Determiner – (a, the, this, my, your, etc.)
- Quantity – (one, two, several, many, few, etc.)
- Opinion – (beautiful, interesting, delicious, strange, etc.)
- Size – (big, small, tall, tiny, etc.)
- Shape – (round, square, flat, narrow, etc.)
- Age – (old, young, new, ancient, etc.)
- Color – (red, blue, green, black, etc.)
- Origin – (American, Italian, Chinese, French, etc.)
- Material – (wooden, plastic, metal, silk, etc.)
- Qualifier – (often a noun acting like an adjective, such as sports car, wedding dress)
An Example
In the sentence above, “I bought a porcelain blue antique vase,” the adjectives don’t follow the royal order. What is the correct order? I bought an antique blue porcelain vase.
an - determiner (1)
antique – age (6)
blue – color (7)
porcelain – material (9)
This sentence now sounds natural because the adjectives follow the royal order.
Note that you don't need to use every royal order category in a sentence. In fact, using too many can make your writing sound awkward and long-winded. It's better to use the most relevant adjectives to convey your message.
What About Commas?
You may wonder if you should use commas between these adjectives. No, not in this case. These adjectives are in different royal order categories and are cumulative. This means each one builds on the next, and they must stay in order. You don’t use commas between cumulative adjectives.
But sometimes you see commas between adjectives, for example, “a bright, cheerful room”. That’s because these are coordinate adjectives. They are in the same royal order category and can be switched around. In the example below, the adjectives are in the opinion category:
- a cheerful, bright room
- a bright, cheerful room
- a bright and cheerful room
- a cheerful and bright room
If the adjectives sound natural in a different order or if you can put “and” between them, they’re coordinate adjectives, so commas are okay.
(Commas with Adjectives - Coordinate vs. Cumulative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvLTn0N1kFQ)
Common Phrases that Break the Rule
Sometimes, certain adjective + noun combinations become so common that they sound right even if they don’t follow the exact royal order. For example: big bad wolf. Even though “size” usually comes after "opinion" in the royal order, “big bad wolf” has become a set phrase.
Excellent post! One of the most interesting things I've learn in linguistics is that English-speaking children have this order straight in their minds and can put these elements in the right order from as early as five years old 😳
Thank you! I enjoy reading about the stages of language acquisition in children. If only we could learn second languages the way they learn to speak.
Thank you for teaching! I have a big problem about this. My friend in Texas always tries to teach me and I've known how to memories this, but I always make the same mistakes. English orders are different from Japanese. It always makes me confused. For example, black and white is the good example. I was shocked when I learned that in English white comes first.
Actually, we say black and white.
@yumiyumayume, adjective order can be confusing, but I think it'll be easier the more you write and listen to how native speakers use adjectives, although we also make mistakes. I've never heard that white comes before black. I usually say black and white.
Thank you for elaborating! I saved this post. I can't master everything right away, but it's really helpful to know the rules.
@yumiyumayume Here’s a question: Since black and white are in the same category and are coordinate adjectives, why do we write or say black and white instead of white and black? That’s because English has many set phrases —word pairs that have a fixed order. *Black and white” is one of them. Another word pair that comes to mind is black and blue. I’m writing about word pairs and will post soon.
English can be confusing because of the many exceptions to the rules (although I’d rather call them guidelines).
@SEQ77 Thank you so much for doing this! Black and white thing really makes me confused, so I'm looking forward to learning from your post! I have never paid attention to black and blue. It's very interesting. I've been taking lots of painting classes in The US, and most of my china painting teachers said white first, so you and Uly's comments are interesting for me. Thank you, both.