Cardinals and Ordinals

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 1

When do you use numbers?

Numbers

There are two kinds of numbers. Do you know which two kinds?

1. ordinary and extraordinary numbers
2. cardinal and ordinal numbers
3. plain and special numbers
4. there are no two kinds of numbers, Miss! What were you thinking?!

So we have cardinals and ordinals. 

we use cardinals for counting

one, two, three, four...

So we have cardinals and ordinals. 

we use ordinals when we want to give order to things.

first, second, third, fourth...

cardinals

ordinals

Twenty-first century

he came in second place

The simpsons are on channel nine

world war two lasted more then five years

The steamengine was invented in the nineteenth century

You are in first grade. 

most of you are twelve years old

The first world war lasted from nineteenfourteen to nineteeneighteen

Cardinal > Ordinal

In general the rule is to add TH to the cardinal, as in:

four > fourth

ten > tenth

Mind this:

fifty > fiftieth

seventy > seventieth

One hundred > one hundredth

Exceptions are: 

one > first (or 1st).

 two > second (or 2nd).

three > third (or 3rd)

And for some ordinals there are changes in spelling:

five > fifth

eight > eighth

nine > ninth

twelve > twelfth

A few things that you must also remember!

 Er staat een - tussen de tientallen (decimals) en de enen (numerals) als je hoger gaat dan 20:

Cardinals:

21 is written as twenty-one, 22 is written as twenty-two etc.

Ordinals:

21st is written as twenty-first, 22nd is written as twenty-second, 23rd is written as twenty-third etc.

One more thing...

When you come to the hundreds or even thousands you spell them as if you count the hundreds/thousands/millions.

Like so:

(one) hundred, two hundred, five thousand, ten million etc.

(note that there's no hyphen!)

What number is spelled correctly?

1. My father is fifty-five years old.
2. Mum celebrated her fiftysecond birthday.
3. Her brother got his seventh birthdaycard.
4. Grandma has eightytwo candles on her birthdaycake

How old is Mr. van Otterdijk?

1. He is forty-four years old.
2. He is twenty-eight but he acts as if he were twelve.
3. He pretends to be young but is really, really old.
4. He is on his way to his twenty-ninth birthday.

Questions?

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