Adjectives are words that modify a noun or pronoun. Adjectives provide information that will help your reader get a better and complete picture of the things that you are writing about. For example: “I met an attractive young blonde woman at the convention last night.
You can use a single adjective to modify a noun or you can use multiple adjectives to modify a noun. When you use multiple adjectives in a sentence, you will need to identify if they are coordinate adjectives or cumulative adjectives.
How to use multiple adjectives in a sentence involves identifying them as either coordinate or cumulative adjectives because coordinate adjectives and cumulative adjectives work differently in sentences.
What are Adjectives With Examples?
Adjectives are words that modify or describe nouns or pronouns. You can use one adjective or two, three or even more adjectives to modify a noun.
When you use multiple adjectives (two, three or more) to modify the noun, you will need to IDENTIFY them as either coordinate adjectives or cumulative adjectives because these adjectives function differently in sentences as you will see below.
The adjectives (below) will be in red and the nouns they modifies will be underlined.
- Rachel gave her husband an amazing gift for his birthday. (single adjective)
- Jenny and Jonathan go to school on a yellow and black bus. (coordinate adjectives)
- Candice had several tasty red popsicle in her refrigerator. (cumulative adjectives)
- The young children played football in the backyard over the weekend. (single adjective)
- My dad droves a shiny, bright truck at work. (coordinate adjectives)
- Uncle Frank bought several new metal posts to fix the fence in the backyard.
Adjectives are multi-faceted and it is important to understand how they function in sentences so that you can give the reader a better and complete picture of the things you are writing about.
If you used two, three or more adjectives, these adjectives fall into two groups – coordinate adjectives or cumulative adjectives.
What are Multiple Coordinate Adjectives With Examples?
There are four distinct features of multiple coordinate adjectives. Once you know these four features, you will immediately identify coordinate adjectives in sentences.
- Coordinate adjectives are separated by a comma or the conjunction “and.”
- Coordinate adjectives work together to describe the noun but they function independently.
- Coordinate adjectives can be reversed without changing their meaning.
- Coordinate adjectives do not follow a particular word order (see below) because they usually belong to the same category.
Some examples of multiple coordinate adjectives in a sentence!
- I have a genuine, sincere friend who watches out for me at all times.
- My grandmother was an elegant, refined lady who loved the special things in life.
- My classy, posh sister can think too highly of herself sometimes.
- I saw a beautiful, charming woman at our family gathering over the weekend.
- Timothy found himself in a dangerous, tricky situation when falling the tree in the backyard.
- The man who shoot the store owner was a cruel, heartless murderer.
- Emma gave her sister a thoughtful, lavish and beautiful gift for her birthday.
- Rebekah has a warm, happy smile every time I see her.
- My Christian friend is a smart, creative and wise person.
- Mum always makes a yummy, tasty soup in winter time.
TEST examples of multiple coordinate adjectives in a sentence!
Because coordinate adjectives work together independently, they can be reversed without changing their meaning. Also the comma can be replaced with the conjunction “and”.
Therefore, there are two test you can use to identify coordinate adjectives. You can reverse their order and replace the comma with the conjunction “and”. Once you do the tests and they sound correct, then they are coordinate adjectives.
Example #1
I have a genuine, sincere friend who watches out for me at all times.
- The adjectives “genuine” and “sincere” modify the noun “friend”.
- When the order is reversed, they still sound correct. I have a sincere, genuine friend who watches out for me at all times.
- The comma can be replaced by the conjunction “and”. I have a genuine and sincere friend who watches out for me at all times.
Example #2
Timothy found himself in a dangerous, tricky situation when falling the tree in the backyard.
- The adjectives “dangerous” and “tricky” modify the noun “situation”.
- When the order is reversed, they still sound correct. Timothy found himself in a tricky, dangerous situation when falling the tree in the backyard.
- The comma can be replaced with the conjunction “and”. Timothy found himself in a dangerous and tricky situation when falling the tree in the backyard.
Example #3
Rebekah has a warm, happy smile every time I see her.
- The adjectives “warm” and “happy” describe the noun “smile”.
- When the order is reversed, they still sound correct. Rebekah has a happy, warm smile every time I see her.
- The comma can be replaced by the conjunction “and”. Rebekah has a warm and happy smile every time I see her.
Example #4
My Christian friend is a smart, creative and wise person.
- The adjectives “smart”, “creative” and “wise” describe the noun “person”.
- When the order is reversed, they still sound correct. My Christian friend is a wise, creative and smart person.
- The comma can be replaced by the conjunction “and”. My Christian friend is a smart and creative and wise person.
What are multiple cumulative adjectives with examples?
There are four distinct features of multiple cumulative adjectives. Remembering these four features will help you spot cumulative adjectives when you see them in sentences.
- Cumulative adjectives work together progressively (not independently) to modify the noun.
- Cumulative adjectives follow a particular word order to build momentum in describing the noun.
- Cumulative adjectives cannot be reversed without changing their meaning.
- Cumulative adjectives are NOT separated by commas.
Some examples of multiple cumulative adjectives in a sentence!
- Rebekah painted several amazing oil paintings to put in her new home.
- They left several rotten red apples on the table in the kitchen.
- Jonathan purchased an old brown wooden table at the markets over the weekend.
- I see that you are wearing your new striped jacket that was given to you for your birthday.
- I found an enormous rectangular Turkish rug at the rummage sale.
- I received a new blue woollen sweater for the commencement ceremony.
- The children were playing in the room with a red plastic robot.
- James found an old shopping cart in the laneway near his grandparent’s home.
- David bought an old reference book for his Library at the rummage sale.
- Jimmy was attacked by a huge black bear while hiking in the mountains.
TEST examples of multiple cumulative adjectives in a sentence!
Because cumulative adjectives work together progressively to modify the noun, they cannot be reversed otherwise they would sound unnatural in the sentence.
Therefore, cumulative adjectives can be tested by reversing the order of the adjectives and if they sound incorrect or unnatural, then they are cumulative adjectives.
Example #1
Rebekah painted several amazing oil paintings to put in her new home.
- The adjectives “several”, “amazing” and “oil” modify the noun “paintings”.
- When the order of the adjectives are reversed, they sound incorrect. Rebekah painted oil amazing several paintings to put in her new home.
- Therefore, they are cumulative adjectives and they follow the order of quantity, opinion and material.
Example #2
I see that you are wearing your new striped jacket that was given to you for your birthday.
- The adjectives “new” and “striped” modify the noun “jacket”.
- When the order of the adjectives are reversed, they sound incorrect. I see that you are wearing your striped new jacket that was given to you for your birthday.
- Therefore, they are cumulative adjectives and they follow the order of age and pattern.
Example #3
I received a new blue woollen sweater for the commencement ceremony.
- The adjectives “new”, “blue” and “woollen” modify the noun “sweater”.
- When the order of the adjectives are reversed, they sound incorrect. I received a woollen blue new sweater for the commencement ceremony.
- Therefore, they are cumulative adjectives and they follow the order of age, color and material.
Example #4
David bought an old reference book for his Library at the rummage sale.
- The adjectives “old” and “reference” modify the noun “book”.
- When the order of the adjectives are reversed, they sound incorrect. David bought an reference old book for his Library at the rummage sale.
- Therefore, they are cumulative adjectives and they follow the order of age and purpose.
The Order of Adjectives!
In written English, the order of adjectives can be somewhat flexible. However, most of the time adjectives follow a specific word order otherwise they will sound unnatural in the sentence. To avoid unnatural-sounding sentences, it is advantageous to follow the specified order shown below!
| Order | Categories | Example Adjectives |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quantity | one, two, three, etc |
| 2 | Opinion | strange, intelligent |
| 3 | Measurement/size | short, tall, large |
| 4 | condition/Age | clean, young, mature |
| 5 | Length/Shape | long, symmetrical, rectangular |
| 6 | Color/Pattern | blue, opaque, striped |
| 7 | Origin, Nationality/Religion | Indian, Eastern, Christian, Muslin |
| 8 | Material | steel, oil, metallic, plastic |
| 9 | Purpose | shopping (cart), reference (book), frying (pan) |
Remember, to use multiple adjectives in a sentence, you will need to identify them as either coordinate or cumulative adjectives because coordinate adjectives and cumulative adjectives work differently in sentences.
