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I am of the notion that when you mention more than one adjective for a noun, you separate them with commas and finally an and before the last one.
#1 eg: the evening, gloomy, rainy and cold.

If there are only two, you separate them using an "and"
#2 eg: the evening, gloomy and rainy.

If I were to place them before the noun, I would write:
#3 the gloomy and rainy evening.

However, Grammarly and other AI based writing helper sites correct the #3 as
the gloomy, rainy evening.

WHy is it so? Is it okay to write like the above? Doesn't it need an 'and'? Does placement determine this or is there any other rule to be considered?

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    I don't know where you have got the idea that two adjectives always have to be separated by and. This is only the case if they follow the noun.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jul 14 at 18:25
  • @KateBunting - My Big Fat Greek Wedding - not a comma or 'and' to be seen.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jul 14 at 18:47
  • @MichaelHarvey - Yes, big and little don't even need a comma when combined with another adjective. Dunno if there are any more like that.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jul 14 at 18:56
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    I don't really know why It was a gloomy, rainy evening sounds natural but The evening was gloomy, rainy doesn't. I think you could follow a noun with two adjectives without and, but it would sound like 'poetic', 'literary' language, not ordinary speech.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jul 14 at 19:08
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    The classic example of adjectives that don't need commas is "lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife". It's not a hard and fast rule but native speakers often order adjectives like this: dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/…
    – Kaia
    Commented Jul 15 at 17:27

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I am of the notion that when you mention more than one adjective for a noun, you separate them with commas and finally an and before the last one.

That's partially correct, but not for all types of adjectives and not in all contexts.

If the adjectives are coordinate adjectives - ie adjectives that independently modify the noun and are of equal importance - then you separate them by commas. For example "it was a cold, gloomy, rainy evening".

As you can see, there is no need to use 'and' before the last adjective when phrased this way around, but if you write it the other way then yes, you need to - ie "the evening was cold, gloomy and rainy".

Interestingly, I was taught that you can identify coordinate adjectives using 'the "and" test'. Basically, if you can join two adjectives with 'and' instead of a comma without changing the meaning, then they can be comma-separated.

But cumulative adjectives should not be comma separated - for example, "a bright red dress". Cumulative adjectives build upon each other and are not of equal importance. The dress is "bright red", not "bright and red".

Also, when adjectives belong to different categories (eg adjectives of size, shape, colour etc) then they are not comma separated - for example "a big red ball".

You asked why adjectives are comma separated - I don't think there is an authoritative answer to that, but when you understand that coordinate adjectives are of equal importance and independent it makes sense that they are considered separately rather than cumulatively. For example, if you said "a white lace dress" it would mean the dress was made of lace that was white, whereas "a white, lace dress" means a dress that is both white and made of lace.

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  • It might also be worth addressing one thing that seems to be confusing the OP: everything above is for when the adjectives precede the noun. If they are glued on after it, everything the OP wrote to begin with is true; you do need "and" and serial commas as needed.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Jul 15 at 18:53
  • @AndyBonner Hmm, no, I think you're wrong. You would say "the dress was white lace", not "white and lace".
    – Astralbee
    Commented Jul 16 at 10:16
  • Well, isn't "lace" a modifying noun there? E.g,, it wouldn't work with "lacy."
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Jul 16 at 13:07
  • @AndyBonner sure, 'lace' is a noun so it is behaving as an adjectival noun when you say "lace dress", but 'lacy' as you suggest would mean it was lace-like, or featuring some lace rather than actually made of lace. I think you're going off-topic.
    – Astralbee
    Commented Jul 16 at 13:23
  • On the contrary, I'm trying to circle back to the OP's original usages. Note that "the evening, gloomy, rainy, and cold" doesn't include a verb. A dressmaking parallel, with more context, might be "she wore a lovely dress, white, lacy, and voluminous." In all this talk about how we can chain adjectives together without commas, perhaps it is worth reassuring the OP that they were correct to use them in this situation.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Jul 16 at 13:29

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