So if the dress was blue and green, we’d write: She wore a long blue and green silk dress. The order of the adjectives is important, as outlined in the Royal Order of Adjectives: If we change the order of the adjectives, we either change the meaning of the sentence, or write a sentence which doesn’t make sense: She wore a silk blue long dress. We’d write: She wore a long blue silk dress. If the answer to either (or both) questions is no, then no comma is needed. If you can answer yes to both questions, then we need a comma. Can the order of the adjectives be reversed without changing the meaning of the sentence? (CMOS 6.36).
Will “and” fit between the two adjectives without changing the meaning of the sentence? (CMOS 5.91 and 6.36).Chicago has a dual test as to whether a comma is needed between coordinate adjectives:
#Royal order of adjectives beginning manual#
But are there? And what is the rule? Fortunately, we have the Chicago Manual of Style to help us. That looks wrong, as though there are too many commas. As a result, I often see sentences like this: Many of us were taught in school that we put commas between all adjectives. Today I’m looking at commas with coordinate adjectives i.e.