Ordinal numbers with "di"

Revision as of 03:12, 18 June 2012 by ViktorMugli (talk | contribs)
Chinese-grammar-wiki-di.jpg

Structure

Also known as: 序数 (xùshù), ordinals and sequence numbers.

In English, there are four different suffixes for ordinal numbers: -st, -nd, -rd and -th. Chinese makes things a lot simpler by using one prefix for all ordinal numbers: 第. This character is simply placed in front of the number:

第 + Number

Examples

  • 第一
  • 第二
  • 第三
  • 第四
  • 小李 是 他的 第三 个 女朋友。
  • 这 是 我 今天 喝 的 第八 瓶 啤酒。
  • 我 是 我们 班 第二 高的 人。

Note that some nouns can form ordinals without 第. These include:

With these, the number can be used directly. For example, 七楼 is "the seventh floor",or 二姐 "the second oldest daughter".

See also

Sources and further reading