Rules for writers, Tenth edition - Diana Hacker, Nancy Sommers 2021

Place cumulative adjectives in an appropriate order
Sentence structure
Multilingual Writers and ESL Topics

Adjectives usually come before the nouns they modify; they may also come after linking verbs. (See 47d and 48b.)

Cumulative adjectives are adjectives that build on one another, cannot be joined by the word and, and are not separated by commas. These adjectives must be listed in a particular order. If you use cumulative adjectives before a noun, see the chart in this section.

ORDER OF CUMULATIVE ADJECTIVES

EXERCISE 30-3

Using the chart in 30g as necessary, arrange the following modifiers and nouns in their proper order. Answers appear in the back of the book.

a. sculptor, young, an, Vietnamese, intelligent

b. dedicated, a, priest, Catholic

c. old, her, sweater, blue, wool

d. delicious, Elias’s, Scandinavian, bread

e. many, boxes, jewelry, antique, beautiful