If you’re ever in doubt about where to place commas in a string of adjectives, refer to the royal order. The Royal Order of Adjectives in English. Only one comma is necessary in the above sentence because “beaded” and “feathered” are the only adjectives belonging to the same category. Let’s start discussing the order of adjectives in English and its components. Here is the royal order of adjectives in the order they should be used when describing something: Opinion e.g. The singer wore an antique purple beaded, feathered costume. he is tired) and other sensory verbs such as look, feel, smell, taste, sound (e.g. However, when you create a string of adjectives, be mindful of both their proper order and of the fact that you needn’t use commas to separate adjectives of a different category. We start with adjectives coming after the verb to be (e.g. Although we might argue that flowing is an observation, which gives us: She wore a flowing long blue silk dress. You could switch their position, and the rhythm of the sentence would still be correct. Some versions of the Royal Order of Adjectives combine Size and Shape, which means we might add a comma in this example: She wore a long, flowing blue silk dress. “Beaded” and “feathered” are equal adjectives, ones that belong to the same category (material) in the royal order. The singer wore a beaded, feathered costume. You probably already know that equal adjectives should be separated by commas, as in this example: Where it gets confusing is in deciding when to use commas to separate a string of adjectives. Typically, writers know better than to string together more than two or three adjectives at a time, and we don’t seem to struggle too much in getter their order straight. Qualifier (final adjective, often an integral part of the noun: vacation resort, wedding dress, race car) Material (describing what something is made of: silk, copper, wooden) Observation or opinion (a genuine fraud, an interesting book, an expensive watch) Have you ever wondered why we instinctively say “the shiny new red car” and not “the red new shiny car”? The reason is that there is a royal order for adjectives, and most native English speakers learn to use it as we’re forming our first complete sentences.Īdjectives fall into categories, and those categories comprise the royal order:ĭeterminer (articles and other limiters: the book, your car)
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