Comments on: The Royal Order of Adjectives

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:09:21 +0000

I was looking for something on the order of adjectives. It is something I just instinctively know (as you mentioned) so I had to look this stuff up for teaching. The adverb order I knew, but I had no clear explanation for the adjectives ready. Grammar is interesting. We need to start bringing it back into the schools.

By: kalqlate

kalqlate — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:45:04 +0000

Mary Hodges said:

“Interesting. I’d never heard of the “Royal Order” but just put adjectives in the order that sounded right to me.”

Yes, as children, most native English speakers learn the rules through constant observation and use. However, in what case of her examples, “what sounded right” was wrong.

On this excellent page,

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm,

under the title,

The Order of Adjectives in a Series,

in the table, you will see that age is always written before color.

Therefore, Mary Hodges example of…

A black old lady’s bike.

…is incorrect for two reasons:

(1) according to the chart, color should appear after age,

(2) the meaning of the sentence is ambiguous because it can be equally interpreted as:

A (black) (old lady’s) bike. = An (old lady’s) (black) bike.

An (old black lady’s) bike.

Following and applying the Royal Order of Adjectives would avoid such ambiguities and possible misinterpretations.

By: kirby

kirby — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 00:10:02 +0000

thanks it was hard searching,this website is great!

By: Pedro

Pedro — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:04:44 +0000

When I learned English, they showed me a video that taught us learners how to remember this. It used the word OPSHACOM. I never forgot it.

O: opinion
SH: shape
A: age
C: color
O: origin
M: material

Whenever in doubt, remember: OPSHACOM!

By: Mary Hodges

Mary Hodges — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:03:37 +0000

Interesting. I’d never heard of the “Royal Order” but just put adjectives in the order that sounded right to me.
You can of course play around and change the order for emphasis or to alter the meaning. For example:
An old lady’s black bike.
An old black lady’s bike.
A black old lady’s bike.
A lady’s old black bike.
A black lady’s old bike.
depending on whether it is the lady or the bike or both that is old or black.
The only combination that sounds wrong to me is
A lady’s black old bike.

(I know that the usual usage is “ladies’ bike” to refer to a bike without a crossbar, but it looked wrong here!)