Spelling and Saying the Ordinal Numbers
Objectives
- Recognize numbers used to identify the order of things
- Spell the ordering
Vocabulary
- ordinal
- ordering
Reading
The formal name for numbers used to identify things in order is “ordinal numbers.” Ordinal numbers have different spellings and pronunciation than cardinal numbers.
Let’s read the first nine ordinal numbers.
1st first
2nd second
3rd third
4th fourth
5th fifth
6th sixth
7th seventh
8th eighth
9th nineth
Your Turn
Pronunciation
Watch this short video to listen to the pronunciation of first through tenth. Ordinal Numbers (How to pronounce in English) #englishpronunciation by TeacherMikeEnglish.
Watch this 9:33 video (8) How to Pronounce ORDINAL NUMBERS — American English – YouTube by Rachel’s English, July 17, 2013. This video gives details for pronunciation.
We will continue with teen ordinals.
10th tenth
11th eleventh
12th twelfth
13th thirteenth
14th fourteenth
15th fifteenth
16th sixteenth
17th seventeenth
18th eighteenth
19th nineteenth
Your Turn
Can you guess what numbers are next? Let’s take a look at the tens.
20th twentieth
30th thirtieth
40th fortieth
50th fiftieth
60th sixtieth
70th seventieth
80th eightieth
90th ninetieth
Your Turn
To say the order in between the tens, for example from 20th to 30th, we use the first nine ordinal numbers. For example,
21st twenty-first
22nd twenty-second
23rd twenty-third
24th twenty-fourth
25th twenty-fifth
26th twenty-sixth
27th twenty-seventh
28th twenty-eighth
29th twenty-nineth
and so on with 30th, 40th, 50th etc.
Your Turn
Let’s read the words for the hundredths, thousandths, and millionths.
100th one hundredth or a hundredth
200th two hundredth
300th three hundredth
4,000th four thousandth
15,000th fifteen thousandth
678,000th six hundred seventy-eight thousandth
7,000,000th seven millionth
80,000,000th eighty millionth
900,000,000th nine hundred millionth
Your Turn
To identify the order in between 100 and 200, 200 and 300, etc., we use the ordinal numbers of 1-99. For example,
901st nine hundred first
802nd eight hundred second
712th seven hundred twelfth
623rd six hundred twenty-third
534th five hundred thirty-fourth
445th four hundred forty-fifth
356th three hundred fifty-sixth
267th two hundred sixty-seventh
178th one hundred seventy-eighth
Your Turn
Summary of suffixes
- When the number ends in 1, use the suffix -st as in first or 1st.
- When the number ends in 2, use the suffice -nd as in second or 2nd.
- When the number ends in 3, use the suffice -rd as in third or 3rd.
- When the number ends in 4-9, use the suffice -th as in fourth or nineth and 4th or 9th.
- The numbers 11-19 use the suffice -th as in eleventh, twelfth, etc. and 11th or 12th.
- When the number ends in zero, use the suffix -th as in twentieth, hundredth, thousandth and 20th, 100th, 1,000th.
