Compare these two sentences:
- They visited a beautiful, decorated house.
- They visited a beautiful medieval house.
The adjectives in the first sentence (beautiful, decorated) have a comma between them because they are equal. They are called co-ordinate adjectives.
The adjectives in the second sentence (beautiful, medieval) don’t have a comma between them because they aren’t equal. They are called cumulative adjectives.
There are two tests to help you decide if you need a comma or not between the adjectives.
Test One
Replace the comma with the word and. If the sentence makes sense then a comma is needed.
- They visited a beautiful, decorated house.
They visited a beautiful and decorated house.
(makes sense/comma needed) - They visited a beautiful medieval house.
They visited a beautiful and medieval house.
(doesn’t make sense/no comma)
Test Two
Reverse the order of the adjectives. If the sentence makes sense then a comma is needed.
- They visited a beautiful, decorated house.
They visited a decorated, beautiful house.
(makes sense/comma needed) - They visited a beautiful medieval house
They visited a medieval beautiful house
(doesn’t make sense/no comma)
When a word is repeated, a comma separates the repeated word.
- Many, many children enjoy sport at school.
There is never a comma between the last adjective and the noun it refers to.
They visited a beautiful, decorated, house.
They visited a beautiful, decorated house.
