Chinese Numbers Explained
The numbers we've looked at so far are cardinal numbers, numbers used in counting things and expressing a quantity. Ordinal numbers represent an order or a sequence of things. Ordinals in Chinese are very logical and consistent, unlike in English which has several different suffixes depending on the number (first, second, third, fourth), in Chinese there's just one word:
.
For any number, even the larger ones we haven't seen yet just add 第 in front of the number to create the ordinal form.
| Ordinals |
|---|
| first | 第一 | dì yī |
| second | 第二 | dì èr |
| third | 第三 | dì sān |
Here are some examples:
| First Glance |
|---|
| first | glance |
| 第 | 一 | 眼 |
| dì | yī | yǎn |
| Second Step |
|---|
| second | step |
| 第 | 二 | 步 |
| dì | èr | bù |
| Third Place |
|---|
| third | place |
| 第 | 三 | 位 |
| dì | sān | wèi |
But be aware you don't always use 第
in situations where you would normally use the ordinal form in English, for example as we saw previously with "2nd Floor". Notice also that when the number is two, we use 二 instead of 两.
That's really all there is to it, ordinals in Chinese are super easy compared to English!
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