Adjectives

Adjectives

 

 

Definition 

Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence. The Articles — a, an, and the — are adjectives.

the tall professor

the lugubrious lieutenant

a solid commitment

a month's pay

a six-year-old child

the unhappiest, richest man  

If a group of words containing a subject and verb acts as an adjective, it is called an Adjective Clause. My sister, who is much older than I am, is an engineer. If an adjective clause is stripped of its subject and verb, the resulting modifier becomes an Adjective Phrase: He is the man who is keeping my family in the poorhouse. 

Before getting into other usage considerations, one general note about the use — or over-use — of adjectives: Adjectives are frail; don't ask them to do more work than they should. Let your broad-shouldered verbs and nouns do the hard work of description. Be particularly cautious in your use of adjectives that don't have much to say in the first place: interesting, beautiful, lovely, exciting. It is your job as a writer to create beauty and excitement and interest, and when you simply insist on its presence without showing it to your reader — well, you're convincing no one. 

Consider the uses of modifiers in this adjectivally rich paragraph from Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel. (Charles Scribner's, 1929, p. 69.) Adjectives are highlighted in this color; participles, verb forms acting as adjectives, are highlighted in this blue. Some people would argue that words that are part of a name — like "East India Tea House — are not really adjectival and that possessive nouns — father's, farmer's — are not technically adjectives, but we've included them in our analysis of Wolfe's text.

He remembered yet the East India Tea House at the Fair, the sandalwood, the turbans, and the robes, the cool interior and the smell of India tea; and he had felt now the nostalgic thrill of dew-wet mornings in Spring, the cherry scent, the cool clarion earth, the wet loaminess of the garden, the pungent breakfast smells and the floating snow of blossoms. He knew the inchoate sharp excitement of hot dandelions in young earth; in July, of watermelons  bedded in sweet hay, inside a farmer's covered wagon; of cantaloupe and crated peaches; and the scent of orange rind, bitter-sweet, before a fire of coals. He knew the good male smell of his father's sitting-room; of the smooth worn leather sofa, with the gaping horse-hair rent; of the blistered varnished wood upon the hearth; of the heated calf-skin bindings; of the flat moist plug of apple tobacco, stuck with a red flag; of wood-smoke and burnt leaves in October; of the brown tired autumn earth; of honey-suckle at night; of warm nasturtiums, of a clean ruddy farmer who comes weekly with printed butter, eggs, and milk; of fat limp underdone bacon and of coffee; of a bakery-oven in the wind; of large deep-hued stringbeans smoking-hot and seasoned well with salt and butter; of a room of old pine boards in which books and carpets have been stored, long closed; of Concord grapes in their long white baskets.  

An abundance of adjectives like this would be uncommon in contemporary prose. Whether we have lost something or not is left up to you.

Position of Adjectives 

Unlike Adverbs, which often seem capable of popping up almost anywhere in a sentence, adjectives nearly always appear immediately before the noun or noun phrase that they modify. Sometimes they appear in a string of adjectives, and when they do, they appear in a set order according to category. (See Below.) When indefinite pronouns — such as something, someone, anybody — are modified by an adjective, the adjective comes after the pronoun:

Anyone capable of doing something horrible to someone nice should be punished.

Something wicked this way comes. 

And there are certain adjectives that, in combination with certain words, are always "postpositive" (coming after the thing they modify):

The president elect, heir apparent to the Glitzy fortune, lives in New York proper. 

See, also, the note on a- adjectives, below, for the position of such words as "ablaze, aloof, aghast."

Degrees of Adjectives 

Adjectives can express degrees of modification:

Gladys is a rich woman, but Josie is richer than Gladys, and Sadie is the richest woman in town.

The degrees of comparison are known as the positive, the comparative, and the superlative. (Actually, only the comparative and superlative show degrees.) We use the comparative for comparing two things and the superlative for comparing three or more things. Notice that the word than frequently accompanies the comparative and the word the precedes the superlative. The inflected suffixes -er and -est suffice to form most comparatives and superlatives, although we need -ier and -iest when a two-syllable adjective ends in y (happier and happiest); otherwise we use more and most when an adjective has more than one syllable. 

Click on the "scary bear" to read and hear George Newall's "Unpack Your Adjectives" (from Scholastic Rock, 1975).

Schoolhouse Rock® and its characters and other elements are trademarks and service marks of American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. Used with permission. 

Positive Comparative Superlative

rich richer richest

lovely lovelier loveliest

beautiful more beautiful most beautiful 
 

Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative degrees:Irregular Comparative and Superlative Forms

good better best

bad worse worst

little less least

much

many

some more most

far further furthest 
 
 

Be careful not to form comparatives or superlatives of adjectives which already express an extreme of comparison — unique, for instance — although it probably is possible to form comparative forms of most adjectives: something can be more perfect, and someone can have a fuller figure. People who argue that one woman cannot be more pregnant than another have never been nine-months pregnant with twins.

Grammar's Response 

According to Bryan Garner, "complete" is one of those adjectives that does not admit of comparative degrees. We could say, however, "more nearly complete." I am sure that I have not been consistent in my application of this principle in the Guide (I can hear myself, now, saying something like "less adequate" or "more preferable" or "less fatal"). Other adjectives that Garner would include in this list are as follows:          absolute          impossible          principal

         adequate          inevitable          stationary

         chief          irrevocable          sufficient

         complete          main          unanimous

         devoid          manifest          unavoidable

         entire          minor          unbroken

         fatal          paramount          unique

         final          perpetual          universal

         ideal          preferable          whole  
 
 

From The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Styleby Bryan Garner. Copyright 1995 by Bryan A. Garner. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., www.oup-usa.org, and used with the gracious consent of Oxford University Press. 
 

Be careful, also, not to use more along with a comparative adjective formed with -er nor to use most along with a superlative adjective formed with -est (e.g., do not write that something is more heavier or most heaviest). 

The as — as construction is used to create a comparison expressing equality:

He is as foolish as he is large.

She is as bright as her mother.

Premodifiers with Degrees of Adjectives 

Both adverbs and adjectives in their comparative and superlative forms can be accompanied by premodifiers, single words and phrases, that intensify the degree.

We were a lot more careful this time.

He works a lot less carefully than the other jeweler in town.

We like his work so much better.

You'll get your watch back all the faster.  

The same process can be used to downplay the degree:

The weather this week has been somewhat better.

He approaches his schoolwork a little less industriously than his brother does.  

And sometimes a set phrase, usually an informal noun phrase, is used for this purpose:

He arrived a whole lot sooner than we expected.

That's a heck of a lot better.  

If the intensifier very accompanies the superlative, a determiner is also required:

She is wearing her very finest outfit for the interview.

They're doing the very best they can.  

Occasionally, the comparative or superlative form appears with a determiner and the thing being modified is understood:

Of all the wines produced in Connecticut, I like this one the most.

The quicker you finish this project, the better.

Of the two brothers, he is by far the faster.  

Authority for this section: A University Grammar of English by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum. Longman Group: Essex, England. 1993. Used with permission.

Less versus Fewer

When making a comparison between quantities we often have to make a choice between the words fewer and less. Generally, when we're talking about countable things, we use the word fewer; when we're talking about measurable quantities that we cannot count, we use the word less. "She had fewer chores, but she also had less energy." The managers at our local Stop & Shop seem to have mastered this: they've changed the signs at the so-called express lanes from "Twelve Items or Less" to "Twelve Items or Fewer." Whether that's an actual improvement, we'll leave up to you.  

We do, however, definitely use less when referring to statistical or numerical expressions:

It's less than twenty miles to Dallas.

He's less than six feet tall.

Your essay should be a thousand words or less.

We spent less than forty dollars on our trip.

The town spent less than four percent of its budget on snow removal.

In these situations, it's possible to regard the quantities as sums of countable measures.  
 

Taller than I / me ??

When making a comparison with "than" do we end with a subject form or object form, "taller than I/she" or "taller than me/her." The correct response is "taller than I/she." We are looking for the subject form: "He is taller than I am/she is tall." (Except we leave out the verb in the second clause, "am" or "is.") Some good writers, however, will argue that the word "than" should be allowed to function as a preposition. If we can say "He is tall like me/her," then (if "than" could be prepositional like like) we should be able to say, "He is taller than me/her." It's an interesting argument, but — for now, anyway — in formal, academic prose, use the subject form in such comparisons.  

We also want to be careful in a sentence such as "I like him better than she/her." The "she" would mean that you like this person better than she likes him; the "her" would mean that you like this male person better than you like that female person. (To avoid ambiguity and the slippery use of than, we could write "I like him better than she does" or "I like him better than I like her.") 
 

More than / over ??

In the United States, we usually use "more than" in countable numerical expressions meaning "in excess of" or "over." In England, there is no such distinction. For instance, in the U.S., some editors would insist on "more than 40,000 traffic deaths in one year," whereas in the UK, "over 40,000 traffic deaths" would be acceptable. Even in the U.S., however, you will commonly hear "over" in numerical expressions of age, time, or height: "His sister is over forty; she's over six feet tall. We've been waiting well over two hours for her." 
 
 

The Order of Adjectives in a Series 

It would take a linguistic philosopher to explain why we say "little brown house" and not "brown little house" or why we say "red Italian sports car" and not "Italian red sports car." The order in which adjectives in a series sort themselves out is perplexing for people learning English as a second language. Most other languages dictate a similar order, but not necessarily the same order. It takes a lot of practice with a language before this order becomes instinctive, because the order often seems quite arbitrary (if not downright capricious). There is, however, a pattern. You will find many exceptions to the pattern in the table below, but it is definitely important to learn the pattern of adjective order if it is not part of what you naturally bring to the language.  

The categories in the following table can be described as follows:

Determiners — articles and other limiters. See Determiners

Observation — postdeterminers and limiter adjectives (e.g., a real hero, a perfect idiot) and adjectives subject to subjective measure (e.g., beautiful, interesting)

Size and Shape — adjectives subject to objective measure (e.g., wealthy, large, round)

Age — adjectives denoting age (e.g., young, old, new, ancient)

Color — adjectives denoting color (e.g., red, black, pale)

Origin — denominal adjectives denoting source of noun (e.g., French, American, Canadian)

Material — denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of (e.g., woolen, metallic, wooden)

Qualifier — final limiter, often regarded as part of the noun (e.g., rocking chair, hunting cabin, passenger car, book cover)  THE ROYAL ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

Determiner Observation Physical Description Origin Material Qualifier Noun

  Size Shape Age Color 

a beautiful     old   Italian   touring car

an expensive     antique     silver   mirror

four gorgeous   long- stemmed   red   silk   roses

her     short   black        hair

our   big   old   English     sheepdog

those     square       wooden hat  boxes

that dilapidated little           hunting  cabin

several   enormous   young   American   basketball players

some delicious         Thai     food 

      This chart is probably too wide to print on a standard piece of paper. If you click HERE, you will get a one-page duplicate of this chart, which you can print out on a regular piece of paper.  
 

It would be folly, of course, to run more than two or three (at the most) adjectives together. Furthermore, when adjectives belong to the same class, they become what we call coordinated adjectives, and you will want to put a comma between them: the inexpensive, comfortable shoes. The rule for inserting the comma works this way: if you could have inserted a conjunction — and or but — between the two adjectives, use a comma. We could say these are "inexpensive but comfortable shoes," so we would use a comma between them (when the "but" isn't there). When you have three coordinated adjectives, separate them all with commas, but don't insert a comma between the last adjective and the noun (in spite of the temptation to do so because you often pause there):

a popular, respected, and good looking student 

See the section on Commas for additional help in punctuating coordinated adjectives.

Capitalizing Proper Adjectives 

When an adjective owes its origins to a proper noun, it should probably be capitalized. Thus we write about Christian music, French fries, the English Parliament, the Ming Dynasty, a Faulknerian style, Jeffersonian democracy. Some periods of time have taken on the status of proper adjectives: the Nixon era, a Renaissance/Romantic/Victorian poet (but a contemporary novelist and medieval writer). Directional and seasonal adjectives are not capitalized unless they're part of a title:

We took the northwest route during the spring thaw. We stayed there until the town's annual Fall Festival of Small Appliances. 

See the section on Capitalization for further help on this matter. 

Collective Adjectives 

When the definite article, the, is combined with an adjective describing a class or group of people, the resulting phrase can act as a noun: the poor, the rich, the oppressed, the homeless, the lonely, the unlettered, the unwashed, the gathered, the dear departed. The difference between a Collective Noun (which is usually regarded as singular but which can be plural in certain contexts) and a collective adjective is that the latter is always plural and requires a plural verb:

The rural poor have been ignored by the media.

The rich of Connecticut are responsible.

The elderly are beginning to demand their rights.

The young at heart are always a joy to be around.  

Adjectival Opposites 

The opposite or the negative aspect of an adjective can be formed in a number of ways. One way, of course, is to find an adjective to mean the opposite — an antonym. The opposite of beautiful is ugly, the opposite of tall is short. A thesaurus can help you find an appropriate opposite. Another way to form the opposite of an adjective is with a number of prefixes. The opposite of fortunate is unfortunate, the opposite of prudent is imprudent, the opposite of considerate is inconsiderate, the opposite of honorable is dishonorable, the opposite of alcoholic is nonalcoholic, the opposite of being properly filed is misfiled. If you are not sure of the spelling of adjectives modified in this way by prefixes (or which is the appropriate prefix), you will have to consult a dictionary, as the rules for the selection of a prefix are complex and too shifty to be trusted. The meaning itself can be tricky; for instance, flammable and inflammable mean the same thing.  

A third means for creating the opposite of an adjective is to combine it with less or least to create a comparison which points in the opposite direction. Interesting shades of meaning and tone become available with this usage. It is kinder to say that "This is the least beautiful city in the state." than it is to say that "This is the ugliest city in the state." (It also has a slightly different meaning.) A candidate for a job can still be worthy and yet be "less worthy of consideration" than another candidate. It's probably not a good idea to use this construction with an adjective that is already a negative: "He is less unlucky than his brother," although that is not the same thing as saying he is luckier than his brother. Use the comparative less when the comparison is between two things or people; use the superlative least when the comparison is among many things or people.

My mother is less patient than my father.

Of all the new sitcoms, this is my least favorite show.  

Some Adjectival Problem ChildrenGood versus Well

In both casual speech and formal writing, we frequently have to choose between the adjective good and the adverb well. With most verbs, there is no contest: when modifying a verb, use the adverb.

He swims well.

He knows only too well who the murderer is.

However, when using a linking verb or a verb that has to do with the five human senses, you want to use the adjective instead.

How are you? I'm feeling good, thank you.

After a bath, the baby smells so good.

Even after my careful paint job, this room doesn't look good.

Many careful writers, however, will use well after linking verbs relating to health, and this is perfectly all right. In fact, to say that you are good or that you feel good usually implies not only that you're OK physically but also that your spirits are high.

"How are you?"

"I am well, thank you."

Bad versus Badly

When your cat died (assuming you loved your cat), did you feel bad or badly? Applying the same rule that applies to good versus well, use the adjective form after verbs that have to do with human feelings. You felt bad. If you said you felt badly, it would mean that something was wrong with your faculties for feeling. 
 
 

Other Adjectival Considerations 

Review the section on Compound Nouns and Modifiers for the formation of modifiers created when words are connected: a four-year-old child, a nineteenth-century novel, an empty-headed fool.  

Review the section on Possessives for a distinction between possessive forms and "adjectival labels." (Do you belong to a Writers Club or a Writers' Club?) 

Adjectives that are really Participles, verb forms with -ing and -ed endings, can be troublesome for some students. It is one thing to be a frightened child; it is an altogether different matter to be a frightening child. Do you want to go up to your professor after class and say that you are confused or that you are confusing? Generally, the -ed ending means that the noun so described ("you") has a passive relationship with something — something (the subject matter, the presentation) has bewildered you and you are confused. The -ing ending means that the noun described has a more active role — you are not making any sense so you are confusing (to others, including your professor). 

The -ed ending modifiers are often accompanied by prepositions (these are not the only choices):

We were amazed at all the circus animals.

We were amused by the clowns.

We were annoyed by the elephants.

We were bored by the ringmaster.

We were confused by the noise.

We were disappointed by the motorcycle daredevils.

We were disappointed in their performance.

We were embarrassed by my brother.

We were exhausted from all the excitement.

We were excited by the lion-tamer.

We were excited about the high-wire act, too.

We were frightened by the lions.

We were introduced to the ringmaster.

We were interested in the tent.

We were irritated by the heat.

We were opposed to leaving early.

We were satisfied with the circus.

We were shocked at the level of noise under the big tent.

We were surprised by the fans' response.

We were surprised at their indifference.

We were tired of all the lights after a while.

We were worried about the traffic leaving the parking lot.  

A- Adjectives 

The most common of the so-called a- adjectives are ablaze, afloat, afraid, aghast, alert, alike, alive, alone, aloof, ashamed, asleep, averse, awake, aware. These adjectives will primarily show up as predicate adjectives (i.e., they come after a linking verb).

The children were ashamed.

The professor remained aloof.

The trees were ablaze. 

Occasionally, however, you will find a- adjectives before the word they modify: the alert patient, the aloof physician. Most of them, when found before the word they modify, are themselves modified: the nearly awake student, the terribly alone scholar. And a- adjectives are sometimes modified by "very much": very much afraid, very much alone, very much ashamed, etc. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Royal Order of Adjectives

by Jacquelyn Landis 
 
 

Have you ever wondered why we instinctively say “the shiny new red car” and not “the red new shiny car”? The reason is that there is a royal order for adjectives, and most native English speakers learn to use it as we’re forming our first complete sentences.  

Adjectives fall into categories, and those categories comprise the royal order:  

Determiner (articles and other limiters: the book, your car) 

Observation or opinion (a genuine fraud, an interesting book, an expensive watch) 

Size and Shape (tiny, fat, square) 

Age (young, old, new) 

Color (blue, sea-green) 

Origin (American, Chinese) 

Material (describing what something is made of: silk, copper, wooden) 

Qualifier (final adjective, often an integral part of the noun: vacation resort, wedding dress, race car)  

Typically, writers know better than to string together more than two or three adjectives at a time, and we don’t seem to struggle too much in getter their order straight. Where it gets confusing is in deciding when to use commas to separate a string of adjectives.  

You probably already know that equal adjectives should be separated by commas, as in this example:  

The singer wore a beaded, feathered costume.  

“Beaded” and “feathered” are equal adjectives, ones that belong to the same category (material) in the royal order. You could switch their position, and the rhythm of the sentence would still be correct.  

However, when you create a string of adjectives, be mindful of both their proper order and of the fact that you needn’t use commas to separate adjectives of a different category.  

The singer wore an antique purple beaded, feathered costume.  

Only one comma is necessary in the above sentence because “beaded” and “feathered” are the only adjectives belonging to the same category.  

If you’re ever in doubt about where to place commas in a string of adjectives, refer to the royal order. It’ll be your faithful guide.

Related Articles

Royal Order of Adverbs

Coordinate and Noncoordinate Adjectives

Comparative Forms of Adjectives

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8 Responses to “The Royal Order of Adjectives”

Jon on October 23, 2009 1:41 am  

It does raise the question “Why is it called the Royal Order of Adjectives?” 

To which monarch can we attribute this grammatical rule? 

Presumably it’s a British monarch – unless it’s a convention adopted from some other monarchy. Do other languages have the same kind of conventions? 

In French some adjectives come before the noun, others after, if I remember rightly…

Cid on October 23, 2009 12:37 pm  

Under the Qualifier topic, shouldn’t the wording be “getting” instead of “getter”?

Autumn on October 23, 2009 3:26 pm  

Very helpful – I was just wrestling with this the other night. 

Thanks for the post!

Charity on October 23, 2009 4:31 pm  

@ Jon: 

I remember being taught the “BAGS” mnemonic in French class… We were told that adjectives come after the noun in French, except when they are descriptors of beauty, age, goodness, or size. I don’t know how accurate this is, but it was certainly easy to remember and apply.

Mary Hodges on October 23, 2009 10:03 pm  

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!)

Pedro on November 24, 2009 2:04 pm  

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!

kirby on December 6, 2010 9:10 pm  

thanks it was hard searching,this website is great!

kalqlate on August 4, 2011 12:45 pm  

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.....ctives.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. 

or 

An (old black lady’s) bike. 

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

The Play's the Thing ... 

Greetings, 

"Act I, Scene I - enter a man swimming for his life ..." 

Now if that's not an opening to have you sitting on the edge of your seat, I don't know what is! Who needs to fill in any background material when you can be "...conducted ... at once to scenes of wild excitement and to situations of terrible distress?" 

That heart-stopping opening is from the Very Reverend Samuel Reynolds Hole, Victorian dean of Rochester. Bet no-one nodded off in his sermons! The good reverend also relates hearing about an example of "compressed genius" from a traveller he met on board the sip, the Orient, while on a trip to Australia.  It's a short (very short) play called, "The Emigrant's Return" and is as follows: 

"The Emigrant's Return"  

In one Act 

Scene - a cottage in Ireland. Enter Emigrant, who surveys the dwelling with emotion, and knocks at door. Door opens. Enter Inmate. 

Emigrant: Is my father alive? 

Inmate: He is not. 

Emigrant: Is my mother living? 

Inmate: She is not. 

Emigrant: Is there any whiskey in the house? 

Inmate: There is not. 

Emigrant: [sighs heavily] This is indeed a woeful day! [Dies] 

Slow music. Curtain. 

It has it all, doesn't it? Homecoming; expectation and disappointment; life and death. All in all, a poignant little tale. 

Best seller material?  

Hmmm ... maybe not. 

Then there's the self-published novel, The Great American Parade, which tells the story of the president who secretly arranges "a giant parade in Washington honoring the richest people in America, who would march front to back in order of their net worth..." 

Can't wait to read more? This is the reviewer's summing up of the book: "...(the) book is printed on very white, shiny paper." 

OK ... maybe you're not rushing out to buy that one either. 

No doubt about it, there are some English and American, old, story-telling, little, weird writers out there. 

Huh? 

What have I done? 

I've upset the Royal Order of Adjectives, that's what I've done.  

The Order is: Determiner, Observation, Size, Shape, Age, Colour, Origin, Material, Qualifier ... so I could tell you about those amazing little square antique black English wooden book stands I found last weekend and you'd not even look up, would you? 

But since you're reading this, you're probably wringing your hands by now ... searching high and low for the missing commas ... or are you? The Rule is that you use a comma "to separate coordinate adjectives. You could think of this as "That tall, distinguished, good looking fellow" rule (as opposed to "the little old lady"). If you can put an and or a but between the adjectives, a comma will probably belong there. For instance, you could say, "He is a tall and distinguished fellow" or "I live in a very old and run-down house." So you would write, "He is a tall, distinguished man" and "I live in a very old, run-down house." But you would probably not say, "She is a little and old lady," or "I live in a little and purple house," so commas would not appear between little and old or between little and purple." (Source) 

Some people whack in commas between every adjective, but it's not really necessary as you'll see when you add a couple of commas and try the AND test with our previous string of adjectives: those amazing, little, square, antique, black English wooden book stands.  

This would then read as: those amazing but little and square and antique and black English wooden book stands.  

Too much, isn't it? 

How about this?  ... those amazing, little square antique black English wooden book stands.  

Try the test: those amazing but little square antique black English wooden book stands. 

That works for me! But it all depends on where you want to place the emphasis in your sentence. 

Oh, and using  the Royal Order would make our original sentence as follows: 

... there are some weird little old English and American story-telling writers out there. 

Here's a story about a person of a particular sex with a particular colour hair, but I'm not allowed to tell you which ... just in case ... well, you know how it is ...  

Ice Fishing 

  A person wanted to go ice fishing, so after getting all of the right

  tools, the person headed toward the nearest frozen lake. 

  After getting comfy on the stool this person started to cut a circular hole in

  the ice. Then from the heavens a voice boomed,  ''THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE.'' 

  Startled, the person moved further down the ice, poured a thermos of hot

  chocolate and started to cut yet another hole in the ice. The voice

  boomed,  ''THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE.'' 

  This time quite scared, the person moved to the far end of the ice,

  started another hole and once again the voice said,  ''THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE.'' 

  The very scared person looked up at the sky and said, ''Is that you, Lord?''