Ordinal numbers with "di"

Revision as of 09:47, 19 August 2011 by Xiuyuan (talk | contribs)
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

Some 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 同学 里 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, 第七楼 is "the seventh floor".

Sources and further reading

外国人实用汉语语法(中英文对照) (pp. 58 - 73)