Adjective order; adjectives after look, feel

English adjectives have two main places: before a noun (a new phone) or after be and other linking verbs (the phone is new). Adjectives never take -s in the plural: two big houses (not bigs).

• Minh bought a new phone last week.

• His old phone was really slow.

• There are two tall trees in front of my house.

  not: talls

💡Some languages put the adjective after the noun, but English puts it before: a white shirt, a big house — not “a shirt white”.

When there are two or three adjectives before a noun, opinion adjectives (nice, lovely, delicious — what the speaker thinks) usually come before fact adjectives (size, age, colour, material… — what anyone can see). Fact adjectives usually follow the order below. It is a very strong tendency, not an absolute law.

• We stayed in a nice old hotel in Hoi An.

• She bought a small black leather bag.

• Dad made a small square wooden box for my pens.

• We had a delicious Italian dinner.

• In real life, native speakers rarely use more than three adjectives before one noun; more than that sounds heavy.
• Two colours together are joined with and: a black and white photo. Other adjectives before a noun are usually not joined with and: a long blue scarf (not a long and blue scarf).
• Two adjectives of the same type (usually two opinions) can be separated by a comma: a cheap, comfortable hotel.
• After be, join the last two with and: The hotel was cheap and comfortable.

💡To remember: opinion → size → age → shape → colour → origin → material → noun. If you're not sure, the more an adjective tells you what the thing basically is (wooden, Japanese, red), the closer it goes to the noun; your personal opinion (nice, delicious) goes furthest away.

After be, get, become, seem and the sense verbs look, feel, sound, smell and taste, we use an adjective, not an adverb — because we are describing the subject, not an action.

• You look tired. Did you sleep badly?

• Something smells good in the kitchen!

• Your plan sounds interesting.

• The new sofa feels really soft.

• It's getting dark. Let's go home.

But when the same verbs describe an action (looking at, smelling, tasting something), use an adverb, as with any other verb:

• She looks happy in this photo.

  look = seem → adjective

• She looked carefully at the photo.

  look = an action → adverb

To compare with a noun, use look like / sound like / smell like + noun: It looks like a toy. That sounds like a good idea.

With numbers, first / next / last go before the number: the first two days, the next few weeks, the last ten minutes.

• I didn't understand the first two lessons.

  not: the two first

• It's going to rain for the next few days.

• The last ten minutes of the film were amazing.

• ✗I want to buy a shirt white.

  ✓I want to buy a white shirt.

  The adjective goes before the noun.

• ✗My neighbour has a black big dog.

  ✓My neighbour has a big black dog.

  Size comes before colour.

• ✗She has long black beautiful hair.

  ✓She has beautiful long black hair.

  The opinion adjective comes first.

• ✗This soup tastes deliciously.

  ✓This soup tastes delicious.

  taste (= have a flavour) + adjective.

• ✗You look happily today.

  ✓You look happy today.

  look (= seem) + adjective.

• ✗I missed the two first lessons.

  ✓I missed the first two lessons.

  first goes before the number.