This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1548.
What adjective order should I use in English?
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English.
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On the IELTS exam and in English in general.
If you use multiple adjectives, there is a specific order for them.
But there's also a huge loophole for this rule.
Find out what it is today.
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That's allearsenglish.com slash f l u e n c y s c o r e. Hello, Lindsay, how are you?
I'm feeling good today, Aubrey.
How's everything going for you?
I'm great.
I'm excited to dive into adjective order.
We got a really great question about this.
It does matter for IELTS speaking and writing and it's something that's pretty intuitive for native English speakers and you listeners.
If you're listening to a lot of English you start sort of feeling what sounds right, but it is so good to really know kind of the guidelines, the rules of how this should work.
Yep.
And we love adjectives, right?
We want to be able to use adjectives to make the world clear to people, right?
And to build your, to boost your vocabulary and pronunciation scores.
Because if you don't have any adjectives to emphasize, it's really hard to vary your tone and it's hard to get those band nine adjectives that can easily boost scores.
Yeah, we want to paint a picture for the examiner in front of us, right?
That's what gets us that seven or higher.
So shall I go ahead and read the question from YouTube?
Yeah, let's do it.
Okay, this was from Languages Coach.
I heard in your video these cute little old downtowns and a thumbs up.
It would be nice to get some tips on how to memorize the right adjective order in English.
Thanks for the great vocab.
Yes.
Yeah.
So we're diving into adjective order and state of the end, because we'll use this in some sample answers.
So this is really important for scores, like I was saying, because adjectives add extra descriptive detail, like you were saying Lindsay, make it colorful the examiner, but also it makes it easier to vary pronunciation.
If there are no adjectives, it's hard to know which word to change your pitch on to emphasize more.
Yeah.
And speaking of scores, Aubrey, we had a student success.
One of our students in Three Keys IELTS had some amazing scores that we want to give a shout out to Maximus today.
Yes.
Congratulations, Maximus, on your amazing IELTS scores.
He scored 8.5 on listening and on speaking.
Fantastic scores.
An 8 on reading and a 7 on writing.
Amazing.
Well done, Maximus.
Really, really impressive.
It is not easy to score that high on all the sections.
And so clearly, Maximus, he was in the course.
He followed our system, our strategies, and they worked.
All right.
Good stuff.
Congratulations.
Yes.
Right.
We're so glad.
And thank you for sharing your scores with us.
So yeah, guys, hit follow right here on IELTS Energy for the same strategies Maximus used.
And let's dive into adjective order.
Okay.
Yeah, this is good.
So where do we start here?
What are the building blocks that we need to know?
Okay, so when multiple adjectives are needed, they normally follow a particular sequence.
Now keep in mind right off the top normally you're going to use at max two to three adjectives before a noun when you're describing a noun.
If you get to where you're using like eight adjectives, it will sound strange.
That's not very natural.
We don't recommend that for IELTS.
But just so that you know, this is the order they would go in if you did use that many adjectives.
Okay.
So the first one would be opinion.
So for example, nice, lovely, boring.
Exactly.
And second would be size, big, small, tiny.
All right.
Then age.
So old, new, young.
And then shape, round, square.
Wow.
Color would be the next one.
Blue, black, pink, yellow.
Then next would come origin.
If it's French, American, Italian.
And then material, plastic, wool, metal.
Yep.
And next would come the purpose.
If it's for, you know, if it's a pan, the purpose would be cooking.
If you're describing shoes, the purpose would be running, running shoes.
Mm-hmm.
And then at the very end comes the thing.
But again, just rest assured you're never going to be giving a list of eight adjectives.
Right.
It is unnatural.
In fact, let's hear an example.
And you'll see this sounds a little funny if you say an impressive small old round black Italian metal cooking pot.
No, you're gonna pick like three, you might say a small black cooking pot, right?
Yeah, it's not gonna unless you're like trying to write poetry or something.
You're just not going to be doing that.
It's People are going to say, get to the point.
You know, what is the object you're talking about?
Right.
And you want to sound natural on IELTS.
You don't want to be stressed about adjective order.
So keep it two to three adjectives for any given noun.
For example, a beautiful old building or a small black bag.
If you're throwing in material and purpose and all of these other adjectives and you might sort of lose your train of thought trying to add in all these other adjectives.
Yes, but we do have some good news here, Aubrey, right?
Which is that, when it comes to opinion adjectives, which we use frequently, those are flexible in terms of order.
Yes, this is great news because a lot of the adjectives you're using in IELTS speaking answers are opinion adjectives, right?
If you say a beautiful small house, those actually are both opinions.
It's a matter of opinion whether a house is small or beautiful.
And we encourage you to use opinion adjectives, because those will give you the best pronunciation opportunities.
What's the difference between a beautiful small house versus a black small house?
You can't really put much emphasis into like a black house, a white house, a green house.
It would be strange to emphasize black because it's not an opinion.
It's just a fact.
It's just a fact.
The order can be switched because they're opinions.
You could also say a small beautiful house.
Those are both equally correct.
Okay.
Love that.
That's good.
But facts rarely change order, though.
So what exactly?
For example, you'd say an old wooden chair, not a wooden old chair.
So when they are facts instead of opinions, the order does matter and it will sound off to the examiner or to whoever you're speaking to if the order is incorrect.
Yeah.
So this is kind of where we do start to learn chunks.
We start to get a visceral sense of how it should sound.
And this is really just, I think, honestly, exposure to the language, Aubrey.
Yes, that's a lot of it.
As you're just taking in English, you'll start getting a feel for what sounds right.
But we do have a couple of pro tips that will help you keep in mind what comes first.
The first one is that material and purpose stay closest to the noun.
So if there's anything else, color, opinion, or whatever, those will be further from the noun.
So for example... a metal water bottle.
If you have the color you'd say, a blue metal water bottle or what it looks like, a shiny metal water bottle.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
Stay closest to the noun.
Right.
Or a running shoe.
So the purpose is running.
So running is the purpose.
So anything else would be further away.
A blue and white running shoe.
An old worn out running shoe.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
That makes sense.
Or a cotton summer dress.
Right.
What's the purpose adjective here?
Yeah.
So the cotton is the material.
The purpose is summer dress.
A dress worn in summer is a summer dress.
Okay.
Remember that material is what's, or no, the purpose is very closest to the noun.
So it does matter if you have material and purpose.
We wouldn't say a summer cotton dress.
No.
So because purpose is closest to the noun, and then everything else is further.
A blue cotton summer dress, you know, a threadbare cotton summer dress.
And then there's one other pro tip, which is that quantity always comes first.
So we're, you know, quantity.
So numbers and quantifiers stand before everything.
Okay.
Tell us about this one, Aubrey.
Exactly.
So if ever you're going to share the number of something, it comes before all of these adjectives.
So two big brown dogs, several interesting new ideas.
And then these others.
If you have material and purpose, maybe four shiny blue metal water bottles.
The number would come first.
Yeah.
I mean, I think the most important thing to keep in mind here is don't panic.
If you hear yourself mixing up the order, don't let it throw you off in your speaking test, right?
Yes.
But this is a great thing to practice ahead of time.
Always, anything you can practice ahead of time is going to help you not panic on test day because you've practiced speaking answers, you've thought about adjective order.
And this is just something to observe.
As you are listening to podcasts, watching TV, pay attention to the adjectives.
Notice the order so that it starts sounding correct.
A certain order of adjectives.
Yes, love that.
Find out for free what you'd likely get on the IELTS exam and get our free resources to increase your score.
Allearsenglishcom slash myscore.
Okay Aabria, we are back from break.
So we're going to do some examples, yeah?
Yes.
And on part one, we're going to do some part one sample answers.
You're asked sets of questions that encourage you to share more detail.
There will often be like three related questions and then a set of three other related questions.
So we're going to have Lindsay answer them.
Just a set of two questions here.
And then I'll give you feedback so that we can point out maybe some of the great vocab or the adjectives you use.
And then I'll also answer a set of two related questions.
All right.
Looking forward to this.
Here we go, Aubrey.
All right.
Ready?
Yes.
Do you live in a house or an apartment?
Actually, interesting question.
I live in neither a house nor an apartment.
I live in a townhouse, which is somewhere in between a house and a condo.
We have a bright sunny front patio with a fire pit and a couch.
And the townhouse also has a spacious, useful garage.
How long have you lived there?
We've lived here since 2021.
Honestly, when we moved in, it was a scrappy, unlivable place.
And we've done some updates, but we still have an outdated, hideous kitchen which we're looking to renovate this winter.
Nice.
So these are perfect part one answers.
Some amazing adjectives here we can point out the order in.
So first of all, when you described your patio, you said we have a bright, sunny front patio.
So the front patio is like the purpose, really, whether it's front or back will be closest to patio.
And then anything else describing it would come before that.
That's really interesting.
And, I will admit, native speakers don't think about the fact that front is the purpose and therefore think to place it.
It just becomes very natural.
But yeah, that's interesting to know.
So the purpose is closest to the noun.
Or useful, those are really both opinions about your garage.
So you could say a useful, spacious garage or a spacious, useful garage.
Okay.
So those ones could be interchanged because they're opinions.
Yeah.
And the same when you were talking about how long you've lived there and you described it as a scrappy, unlivable place which, by the way, these are both ban nine adjectives.
Students don't use those very often and you should, right?
Yeah.
But again, opinions, right?
To call something scrappy and unlivable, that's a matter of opinion.
I dropped a lot of opinions here.
Kind of making fun of ourselves a little bit here when we're talking about our own homes, right?
Exactly.
Or the next one I said, we have an outdated, hideous kitchen.
I guess those are both opinions, right, Aubrey?
Absolutely.
So you could also say a hideous, outdated kitchen.
Yeah.
That is funny.
We always do that to our way.
We have a tendency to talk the most trash about our own things, right?
But nobody else would dare call your kitchen hideous and outdated.
They might actually.
It's not bad.
It's pretty bad.
Oh, my gosh.
So funny.
All right.
So would you like to answer some sample questions then, Aubrey?
Yes, let's do it.
Okay.
All right.
So do you spend much time with your family?
Oh, it depends on if you're asking about my children and my husband or the family I grew up with my parents.
I see them in the winter.
My dad is actually super sweet, but growing up he was sometimes a gruff strict, no-nonsense father.
So it's been kind of nice to become an adult and just have this really nice relationship where he's softer and more kind and I don't have that you know kind of harsh dad anymore.
Nice, nice.
And who are you closest to in your family?
I'm super close to my youngest sister, Liz.
She's a kind, thoughtful, selfless friend.
She and her husband just bought my parents farmhouse actually. and their land.
And they built a new white stick home on the property for my parents.
So now when I go and visit in the summer, I'll be able to see my sister all the time when we're living there by my parents.
And that's going to be really nice to be able to see them all.
Nice.
I love this.
So we've got a lot of good stuff here, Aubrey.
So you said in your first answer.
You said your dad was sometimes a gruff strict, no-nonsense father like that.
Interesting.
These are all Opinions, right?
It's funny because me as a child growing up with him, I'd be like, no, it's just a fact.
But it's a matter of opinion.
Somebody else's father might have been a lot more strict and gruff, right?
So these could be in any order.
Interesting.
And then you described your sister Liz and you said she's a kind, thoughtful, selfless friend.
Also kind of opinions, right?
Wouldn't you say?
Interesting how so many adjectives are actually a matter of opinion.
Depends on your basis of comparison.
I love that.
I mean, that's a huge kind of loophole in these rules that we get to take advantage of.
If you're using adjectives that are opinions, then the order doesn't matter at all.
But when I described my parents' new home, I said a new white stick home.
And this is interesting because a stick home is a house that's built on site, piece by piece, using a wooden frame.
Yeah, I didn't know what that was.
Okay.
So that would be the material really, right?
So that would have to be closest.
I couldn't say a stick white new home.
That doesn't work, right?
So this is one of those things where purpose and material stay closest to the noun.
Okay.
Wow.
Good.
I learned what a stick home is.
I didn't know before.
So learn something new every single day.
I didn't know until my parents built one.
I was like, what does that mean?
You keep saying stick home.
What does that mean?
Yeah.
What does that mean?
It gives you a picture of.
Is this going to be like, I don't know, a structure made entirely of sticks?
You're imagining the three little pigs with the hay and the sticks and the brick.
And I also used an adjective that I haven't heard students use this much gruff to describe a person.
That's a great one.
Sort of rough or harsh in their manner, voice or appearance.
You kind of imagine a grumpy old guy.
Yeah.
Oh, I think that's a great adjective.
Yeah, it builds a real picture, doesn't it?
Yes.
Yeah.
And because it's an adjective of opinion, you wouldn't have to worry about the order.
You could use it, you know, a gruff old guy or an old gruff guy.
I also like your choice of no nonsense as an adjective.
I think that one's probably very rarely used on IELTS.
So it would score you quite high, don't you think?
Similar to the word strict.
But yes, this is it's very native and natural and students don't use it a lot.
So anytime you're describing a person, a friend, a parent, if they were pretty serious you could call them no nonsense.
He's a very no nonsense person.
Okay.
Perfect.
Love it.
Wow.
This has been good.
So we see a lot of rules, but we understand we're not going to get overwhelmed by the rules.
And we understand there's a huge loophole, which is around opinions, right?
Take advantage of that.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And we want to make sure you didn't miss, we had a really great episode.
If you missed it, just scroll up to 1546, exaggerate for higher IELTS speaking scores.
So along with adjective order, you can exaggerate to boost your scores.
So don't miss that episode.
Yeah.
And where should we leave our listeners today?
What should be our final thought today?
Yeah, you definitely need adjectives on IELTS speaking and also writing, but especially on speaking because it helps you vary your pronunciation.
So use today's tips to add multiple adjectives.
When in doubt, use adjectives of opinion, so you don't have to worry about the order and boost your scores when you're talking about something.
Awesome.
Really good topic.
Hadn't thought about this topic, but very important for IELTS, right?
Important for our score.
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you for this comment on YouTube, guys.
That's a great place for you to leave comments for us on our YouTube videos on IELTS Energy TV.
And another big shout out to Maximus.
Congratulations on your score.
Congratulations on your hard work.
And we're excited to hear about your future plans, where you're going with your score, what your life will look like.
We are excited for you.
Yes.
Congratulations, Maximus.
We're excited for all of you to be there one day with the scores you need on IELTS.
So keep up the good work.
Keep up the motivation so that you will be there as well.
All right.
Good stuff.
Talk soon, Aubrey.
Have a good one.
Awesome.
Thanks.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
Hit subscribe now, and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglishcom.
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