Ordinal numbers with "di"
Revision as of 07:11, 21 November 2011 by Jonathan.pope (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 第二 高的 人。
Note that some nouns can form ordinals without 第. These include:
- 月
- 楼
- 层
- 姐
- 弟
With these, the number can be used directly. For example, 七楼 is "the seventh floor"，or 二姐 "the second oldest daughter".
