Adjectives: a nice new house, you look tired

This lesson explains how adjectives describe nouns and how they are positioned in English. You will learn: where to place a single adjective before a noun, how to order multiple adjectives (for example: opinion before age), and how adjectives follow linking verbs (like be, look, feel).

• Adjectives usually come before the noun: a nice house.
• More than one adjective follows a conventional order: opinion → size → age → color → origin → material → purpose.
• Adjectives come after linking verbs to describe the subject: You look tired.

Remember two main points:

• Place descriptive adjectives before the noun: a nice office.
• Place adjectives after linking verbs to describe the subject: The staff feel exhausted.
• When using more than one adjective, follow the conventional order (opinion → size → age → color → origin → material → purpose).

If you can use a linking verb (be/look/feel/seem), the adjective comes after it.

Learners often make these errors with adjectives:

• Putting adjectives after the noun: *a house nice* is wrong in English (adjective goes before).
• Incorrect adjective order: *a new nice house* instead of *a nice new house*.
• Using an adverb instead of an adjective after a linking verb: *You feel tiredly* (wrong).
• Adding unnecessary articles or determiners when combining adjectives: *the the new office*.

Focus on adjective order rules and remember linking verbs require adjectives (not adverbs).