Jul 8, English Adjectives – Types of Adjectives, determiners and the order of adjectives in a sentence

An adjective is a word that describes a person or thing.

Examples:
Big, pretty, expensive, green, round, French, loud, quick, fat.

Example sentences:
He has big blue eyes.The new car broke down.The old lady was talking in a quiet voice.
The word "adjective" comes from the Latin word jacere, which means "to throw."
Adjectives can be divided into several types:

Opinion
Nice, pretty, stupid, original, expensive, etc.

A sweet girl

Size
Big, small, large, tiny, enormous, little, etc. An enormous cupcake

Age
Young, old, new, ancient, antique, etc.

An antique car

Shape
Round, square, flat, straight, etc. A round coin

Color
Blue, red, white, black, dark, bright, yellowish, etc.

A red apple


Origin
Italian, British, Mexican, western, southern, etc. An Italian Pizza

Material
Metal, wooden, plastic, golden, etc. A wooden house

A determiner is a word that comes before a noun to show which person or thing you are talking about. 

Examples:
A, an, the, my, your, some, any, several, enough, any.

Example sentences:
I have a red hat.Please give me my bag.Some people decided to leave.She doesn't want any money.They watched several movies.Some people consider determiners to be a type of adjectives. What's special about determiners is that you usually can use only one determiner at a time.

Incorrect: He has the my ticket.
Correct: He has my ticket / He has the ticket.

Sometimes nouns function as adjectives. In other words, they come before another noun and describe it.

Examples:
Sports carOrange juiceTelevision stationCoffee shopBook coverA noun can have several adjectives describing it.

Examples:
"She bought a new red Italian table."
"He is a great, successful father."

There are certain rules on the correct order of these adjectives.

This is the order you should generally follow:

Determiner -> opinion -> size -> age -> shape -> color
-> origin -> material -> a word describing purpose/function

Examples:
A nice little coffee shop
(Determiner -> opinion -> size -> purpose/function word)
My huge new swimming pool
(Determiner -> size -> age -> purpose/function word)
Several Chinese plastic cups
(Determiner -> origin -> material)
The round yellow ball
(Determiner -> shape -> color)
Adjectives from the same type:
When you have several adjectives from the same type, you should separate them with commas or a conjunction (and, but).

Examples:
A cheap, good meal
A happy, smart man
The beautiful, original painting
My nice and sweet cat
An expensive but important trip

"Comparative" means "comparing something to something else."

Comparative adjective show which thing is better, worse, stronger, weaker, and so forth.

Examples:
Better, worse, bigger, smaller, nicer, fatter, thiner, more dangerous.

Example sentences:
She is a better student than her brothers.The test was worse than I've expected.You are stronger than me.He seems healthier.You are more beautiful than her."Superlative" means "of the highest degree."

Superlative adjectives show us which thing is the best, the strongest, and so forth.

Examples:
Best, worst, strongest, smallest, cheapest, most expensive.

Example sentences:
You are my best friend.This is the worst day of my life.Even the smallest donation helps.This is the most expensive restaurant I've ever heard of.