Learn English with a Story: Adjective Order (Beginner English Lesson)

how do native speakers know that this is

a big white metal cup and not a metal

big white cup that's because adjectives

follow a special order and in this video

you'll learn all about them first you'll

watch a fun story that has a surprise

ending and demonstrates the concept of

adjective order in action then you'll

watch a quick lesson on adjective order

filled with tips and tricks to make sure

you master this topic and finally you'll

watch the story one more time but this

time without subtitles so that you can

practice your listening skills ready

let's

go hey Sophie it's great to see you how

was your exchange trip to Australia did

you get a chance to improve your English

hi Ethan it's lovely to see you too it

was amazing and my English is better

than ever but improving my English

wasn't the best part really then what

was it Ethan you won't believe how

beautiful Sydney is the tall modern

buildings in the city center and the

water at Bondi Beach is Crystal

sparkling blue it's

breathtaking I also visited the Sydney

Opera House did you know that the Opera

House was built so that it looks like

big white

sailboats is that right that's amazing

did you also visit the vibrant local

markets I've heard there are things from

all over the world yes the colorful

crowded markets are lovely there are

lots of fresh exotic fruits from all

around the world and also unique

handmade Australian jewelry but the best

part was the warm spicy smell of food

stalls I ate some amazing banana bread

while I was there it was a big big soft

slice filled with a chocy banana flavor

makes me wish I could have joined you

Sophie the sunny City the sandy beaches

and the colorful markets sounds like a

perfect memorable trip do you have any

pictures unfortunately I don't I lost my

phone while I was there oh I'm sorry to

hear that it's okay it was a cheap old

Basic Black phone nothing fancy or

expensive I'm more upset that I lost the

pictures what was the most beautiful

place that you saw the most beautiful

place was the Sydney Harbor Bridge it's

a huge Steel Bridge stretching across

the calm Blue Harbor Waters wow that

sounds amazing it really was and on the

Harbor Waters there were many cute small

sailboats it was peaceful I hope I can

go soon did you bring back any

souvenirs yes I did I brought brought

you this gift oh cool but what is it

it's a beautifully carved authentic

Australian boomerang a boomerang that's

awesome did you learn how to use it yeah

they taught us at this practical and fun

Workshop it's hard but I can show you I

really want to learn thanks for the gift

Sophie speaking of gifts while you were

in Australia a small brown package

arrived for you a couple of days ago by

post thanks I wonder what it

is oh wow I don't believe it it's my

phone that's great news so someone found

it yeah looks like it there's a note

with it it says found your phone near

the Sydney Harbor Bridge hope this finds

you well how lucky Sophie you can show

me your pictures now I want to see if

everything is as nice as you

described it's not it's a lot

[Music]

better adjective order now before we

describe what adjective order actually

is let's start by remembering what are

adjectives remember that adjectives

describe a noun a noun being a person a

place or a thing

and these adjectives should always be in

a certain grammatical order now be sure

to stay until the end of this lesson

because I have a very useful tip for you

to master the order of these adjectives

now let's look at an example the

beautiful big black dog is eating here

we have three adjectives beautiful big

and black notice that all three

adjectives describe our noun which in

this case is an animal it is a dog now

if I gave you these three adjectives

what order should they go in and this is

what we're going to talk about today so

often as speakers we'll want to use more

than one adjective in a row but like in

this example how do we know which order

these adjectives should come in and the

first tip I have for you is the meaning

so it's the meaning of the adjectives

that determines the order that the

adjective should go in and to help you

with this I have a very helpful acronym

which is our DOA scump so remember that

in an acronym each letter represents a

word for example VI is an acronym for

very important person so right here we

have an acronym to help you with

adjective order we're going to look at

what each one of these stand for and

this is the order that the the

adjectives should come in now let's look

at the first one the first one is D and

D is for determiner now determiner

adjectives they determine the noun and

what I mean by this is usually it will

be an article for example a for

indefinite article a or an or the for

definite articles but they can also be

possessive adjectives like my or your or

her or his these are also determiner

adjectives and they will always come

first for example a pencil a shirt and

the bike so D is the first type of

adjective and that is a determiner this

one will always come first next we have

o o stands for opinions so these are

adjectives that reflect an opinion you

might have for example lovely beautiful

ugly perfect boring all of these are

opinions so something that might be

boring for Me Maybe it's not boring for

you so these are opinion adjectives and

they will come second so let's look at

these examples a boring

pencil a beautiful

shirt a lovely bike notice that these

three adjectives they are opinions they

are not facts

so a shirt that's beautiful to me might

not be beautiful to you next we have s s

stands for size some example of this

type of adjective would be large huge

small or tiny so obviously they describe

how big or how small something is so

let's take a look at our examples here

we have a boring tiny pencil so we have

a our determiner boring our opinion

adjective and in third place we have our

size adjective tiny next we have a

beautiful large shirt and finally a

lovely small bike next we have age age

determines how old or how young or how

new something is for example young old

or you can even get specific with the

age for example 34y old or we also have

modern and new for example a boring tiny

old pencil so notice that old is in the

fourth position because it is an age

adjective next we have a beautiful large

new shirt and then we have a lovely

small modern bike and in fifth place we

have another s and this s stands for

shape so this describes the shape of

something or the form that something has

for example we have have round Square

rectangular or even cloud shaped so you

can get a little bit more specific and

compare the noun to some other noun for

example a boring tiny old rectangular

pencil so the adjective rectangular

which is describing the form of the

pencil is in fifth place next we have C

C is for color for example yellow bright

black pale so you can see that we can be

very specific in terms of color like

yellow or we can just describe the shade

for example bright for instance a boring

tiny old rectangular blue pencil or a

beautiful large new black shirt or even

a lovely small modern silver bike next

we have O O is for origin or nationality

so this describes where something is

from for example British Chinese or

French let's take a look at our example

sentence a boring tiny old rectangular

blue French pencil so the pencil is from

France so that's why French occupies the

seventh position next we have a

beautiful large new black Chinese shirt

or a lovely small modern silver British

bike in the eighth position we have m m

stands for material so what is this noun

made of for example Stone metal paper

cotton wood or glass let's take a look

at our example sentence a boring tiny

old rectangular blue French wooden

pencil so the pencil is made out of wood

so that's why the adjective wooden is in

the eighth position or a beautiful large

new black Chinese cotton shirt or a

lovely small modern silver British metal

bike and in the last position we have P

P stands for purpose what is the noun

used for for example sleeping mining

riding cooking there can be so many uses

for a noun let's take a look at our

example a boring tiny old rectangular

blue French wooden exam pencil so this

specific pencil is for taking an exam so

it is an exam pencil the purpose is for

exams let's look at our next example a

beautiful large new black Chinese cotton

wedding shirt so this shirt is

specifically for a wedding and lastly we

have a lovely small modern silver

British metal trail bike so this bike is

made for Trails so it's not made for

streets it's made for Trails so that is

its purpose so that is why Trail is in

the ninth position cuz it's the purpose

of the bike okay now it's time for our

first quick tip which is that some

adjectives can be facts or opinions it

will depend on the context for example

the big black dog well black everyone

can agree is a fact if I see a black dog

you will also see a black dog but big

can be a matter of opinion for example a

big dog to me might not be a big dog for

you so this is why sometimes depending

on the adjective it can be a fact or an

opinion okay now you may be thinking

with so many adjectives we'll probably

need to insert a comma in there

somewhere right and you're right but

this will depend on the type of

adjective and there are two types of

adjectives first we have coordinate

adjectives now coordinate adjectives are

just adjectives that belong to the same

group for example here we have nice and

lovely both of these adjectives belong

to the same group the group being

opinion adjectives so when using

coordinate adjectives adjectives that

belong to the same group we will always

use a comma to separate them as long as

they're describing the same noun for

example he is a nice nice lovely person

so nice and lovely are opinion

adjectives so they belong to the same

group they are coordinate adjectives so

we will place a comma to separate them

and another tip that I have for you is

you can actually use the word and or

reverse the order of the adjectives and

if they still make sense that means that

you can add a comma in between them for

example we could say he is a nice and

lovely person this still makes sense so

we can place a comment between nice and

lovely he is a nice lovely person now we

also have a second type of adjectives

which are the cultive adjectives they

are adjectives that belong to different

groups in this case do not use commas

for example nice and small nice is an

opinion adjective and small is a size

adjective so again never use commas for

communative adjective ties let's take a

look at an example I have a nice small

dog so once again nice is an opinion

small is a size adjective so we will not

use a comma to separate them because

they belong to different categories or

different groups if I were to use a

comma or if I were to use and to

separate these adjectives it would be

incorrect okay so here are some

practical tips for you to take from this

video first one being opinion adjectives

are always before facts for example that

was a terrible long flight terrible is

an opinion long there's generally a

consensus that a long flight is long to

everyone so one is an opinion adjective

the other is a size adjective so the

opinion adjective always comes before

the other adjectives second tip General

adjectives always come before specific

adjectives let's see an example I have a

short Canadian sister so short is a size

adjective while Canadian is an origin or

a nationality adjective now short is a

pretty General adjective because many

things can be short for example a person

can be short a movie can be short a meal

can be short a pencil can be short many

things can be short but Canadian not

many things are Canadian so Canadian is

a lot more specific than short so

therefore a more specific adjective will

come after a general adjective now that

you know everything about adjective

order let's rewatch our story dialogue

this time without subtitles to practice

our listening

skills hey Sophie it's great to see you

how was your exchange trip to Australia

did you get a chance to improve your

English hi Ethan it's lovely to see you

too it was amazing and my English is

better than ever but improving my

English wasn't the best part really then

what was it Ethan you won't believe how

beautiful Sydney is the tall modern

buildings in the city center and the

water at Bondi Beach is Crystal

sparkling blue it's

breathtaking I also visited the Sydney

Opera House did you know that the Opera

House was built so that it looks like

big white

sailboats is that right that's amazing

did you also visit the vibrant local

markets I've heard there are things from

all over the world yes the colorful

crowded markets are lovely there are

lots of fresh exotic fruits from all

around the world and also unique

handmade Australian jewelry but the best

part was the warm spicy smell of food

stalls I ate some amazing banana bread

while I was there it was a big soft

slice filled with a chocy banana flavor

makes me wish I could have joined you

Sophie the sunny City the sandy beaches

and the colorful markets sounds like a

perfect memorable trip do you have any

pictures unfortunately I don't I lost my

phone while I was there oh I'm sorry to

hear that it's okay it was a cheap old

Basic Black phone nothing fancy or

expensive I'm more upset that I lost the

pictures what was the most beautiful

place that you saw the most beautiful

place was the Sydney Harbor Bridge it's

a huge Steel Bridge stretching across

the calm Blue Harbor Waters wow that

sounds amazing it really was and on the

Harbor Waters there were many cute small

sailboats

it was peaceful I hope I can go soon did

you bring back any

souvenirs yes I did I brought you this

gift oh cool but what is it it's a

beautifully carved authentic Australian

boomerang a boomerang that's awesome did

you learn how to use it yeah they taught

us at this practical and fun Workshop

it's hard but I can show you I really

want to learn thanks for the gift Sophie

speaking of gifts while you were in

Australia a small brown package arrived

for you a couple of days ago by post

thanks I wonder what it

is oh wow I don't believe it it's my

phone that's great news so someone found

it yeah looks like it there's a note

with it it says found your phone near

the Sydney Harbor Bridge

hope this finds you well how lucky

Sophie you can show me your pictures now

I want to see if everything is as nice

as you

described it's not it's a lot

[Music]

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next up is a video about a topic that

every English student needs to know

that's right I'm talking about

prepositions I'll see you there