Ordinal numbers

Catherine Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary with me, Catherine.

Neil And me, Neil. And today we’re talking about ordinal numbers.

Catherine Yes. So numbers like first, second and third . So let’s start by listening to Laurence. He’s talking about his 18th birthday party. While you listen, try to answer this question: What date was his party? Here’s Laurence.

INSERT Laurence For my 18th birthday last year, I invited about sixty friends and relatives! It was on the twenty-fifth of May and it was the first time that I’ve ever had a big party. It was in a restaurant on the third floor of a hotel. The food was really delicious and I won second prize in the dancing competition!

Neil So we asked you: What date was Laurence’s birthday party?

Catherine And the answer is: the twenty-fifth of May.

Neil That’s right. Now the twenty-fifth is an ordinal number like the first and the second . Ordinal numbers tell us the position of something in a group - the dates in a month, for example.

Catherine Or which birthday it is. Laurence said it was his eighteenth birthday.

Neil Yes, he did. Lucky him! And ordinal numbers are different to cardinal numbers. We use cardinal numbers like one , two , three for counting and to answer the question how many .

Catherine And to make a cardinal number into an ordinal number, add the letters t-h to the end of the cardinal number. Eighteen - eighteenth; sixty - sixtieth.

Neil
And that works for all the cardinal numbers except for first, second and third - they’re irregular, but for all the others, it’s add t-h, so that’s fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh …

Catherine Eighth, ninth, tenth . So that’s good but in writing we do have a couple of irregular spellings, such as fifth:

Neil f-i-f-t-h

Catherine eighth

Neil e-i-g-h-t-h

Catherine ninth

Neil n-i-n-t-h

Catherine twelfth

Neil t-w-e-l-f-t-h

Catherine And for numbers ending in -y like sixty , drop the -y and add -i-e and -t-h to make sixtieth:

Neil s-i-x-t-i-e-t-h

Catherine Now let’s look more closely at dates. Listen for the date in this clip.

INSERT CLIP 1 It was on the twenty-fifth of May and it was the first time that I’ve ever had a big party.

Neil The twenty-fifth of May . When we say the day before the month, we always use the words the and of : the twenty-fifth of May .

Catherine But when we say the month before the day, we don’t use the word of . It’s just May the twenty-fifth.

Neil We often use the word the with ordinal numbers, but we can also use possessives. In this next clip, Laurence uses the possessive adjective my before eighteenth .

INSERT 1 CLIP 2 For my 18th birthday last year, I invited about sixty friends and relatives!

Catherine Let’s have another clip.

INSERT 1 CLIP 3 It was in a restaurant on the third floor of a hotel. The food was really delicious and I won second prize in the dancing competition!

Neil So, now we have two more ways of using ordinal numbers: space and quality.

Catherine Yes, we do. And the third floor tells us about the position of the floors in space. It’s the same as when we give directions, for example: Take the second left after the traffic lights.

Neil And second prize tells us about the quality. And a point to make here is that ordinal numbers can be used as adjectives and adverbs without the. Like in the phrase he won second prize. Second is an adjective.

IDENT
6 Minute Vocabulary from BBC Learning English.

Neil And now it’s quiz time! Number one: Which of these is correct? The party’s on: a) thirtieth of July b) the thirtieth July c) the thirtieth of July.

Catherine And it’s c) the thirtieth of July.

Neil
Great! Now, number two. Which word in this list is wrong? First, second, third, ford, fifth.

Catherine
The answer’s ford . It should be fourth .

Neil Yes, it should! Number three: Which of these is correct? a) My twenty-first birthday b) My the twenty-first birthday c) The my twenty-first birthday.

Catherine The answer’s a) My twenty-first birthday.

Neil Well done if you got them right. But before we go, here’s a vocabulary tip. Try saying your own important and memorable dates in English, for example, birthdays, anniversaries and festivals. If the dates are important, you’re more likely to remember the English.

Catherine There’s more about this at bbclearningenglish.com. Join us again soon for more 6 Minute Vocabulary.

Both Bye!