English •
-st is used with numbers ending in
1 (e.g.
1st, pronounced
first) •
-nd is used with numbers ending in
2 (e.g.
92nd, pronounced
ninety-second) •
-rd is used with numbers ending in
3 (e.g.
33rd, pronounced
thirty-third) • As an exception to the above rules, numbers ending with
11,
12, and
13 use
-th (e.g.
11th, pronounced
eleventh,
112th, pronounced
one hundred [and] th) •
-th is used for all other numbers (e.g. 9th, pronounced
ninth). • One archaic variant uses a singular
-d for numbers ending in 2 or 3 (e.g.
92d or
33d) In 19th-century handwriting, these terminals were often elevated, that is to say written as superscripts (e.g. ). With the gradual introduction of the
typewriter in the late 19th century, it became common to write them on the baseline in typewritten texts, and this usage even became recommended in certain 20th-century style guides. Thus, the 17th edition of
The Chicago Manual of Style states: "The letters in ordinal numbers should not appear as superscripts (e.g., 122nd not )", as do the
Bluebook Microsoft, and
Yahoo. Two problems are that superscripts are used "most often in citations" and are "tiny and hard to read". Some
word processors format ordinal indicators as superscripts by default (e.g.
Microsoft Word). Style guide author Jack Lynch (
Rutgers) recommends turning off automatic superscripting of ordinals in
Microsoft Word, because "no professionally printed books use superscripts".
French French uses the ordinal indicators '
and ' for the number 1, depending on gender (masculine '
; feminine '). It uses '
for higher numbers (for instance '). French also uses the indicators '
and ' for the alternative second ordinal number (masculine ; feminine ). Although regarded as incorrect by typographic standards, longer forms are in wide usage: '
for feminine 1 (')), '
for numbers starting at 2 (for instance '), '
and ' for the alternative second ordinal number ('
; ') These indicators use superscript formatting whenever it is available.
Catalan The rule in
Catalan is to follow the number with the last letter in the singular and the last two letters in the plural. Most numbers follow the pattern exemplified by '20' ('
' '
, ' '
', '
' '
, ' '
'), but the first few ordinals are irregular, affecting the abbreviations of the masculine forms. Superscripting is not standard.
Dutch Unlike other
Germanic languages,
Dutch is similar to
English in this respect: the French layout with '
used to be popular, but the recent spelling changes now prescribe the suffix '. Optionally '
and ' may be used, but this is more complex: '
('), '
('), '
('), '
('), etc.
Finnish In
Finnish orthography, when the numeral is followed by its
head noun (which indicates the
grammatical case of the ordinal), it is sufficient to write a period or
full stop after the numeral: '
"In the competition, I finished in 2nd place
". However, if the head noun is omitted, the ordinal indicator takes the form of a morphological suffix, which is attached to the numeral with a colon. In the nominative case, the suffix is for 1 and 2, and for larger numerals: ' 'I came
2nd, and my brother came
3rd'. This is derived from the endings of the spelled-out ordinal numbers: '
, ',
, , '
, ', '''', etc.. The system becomes rather complicated when the ordinal needs to be
inflected, as the ordinal suffix is adjusted according to the case ending: '
(nominative case, which has no ending), ' (
genitive case with ending '
), ' (
partitive case with ending '
), ' (
inessive case with ending '
), ' (
illative case with ending '
), etc.. Even native speakers sometimes find it difficult to exactly identify the ordinal suffix, as its borders with the word stem and the case ending may appear blurred. In such cases, it may be preferable to write the ordinal word entirely with letters and particularly ' is rare even in the nominative case, as it is not significantly shorter than the full word ''''.
Irish Numerals from 3 up form their ordinals uniformly by adding the suffix '
: ', '
, ', etc. When the ordinal is written out, the suffix adheres to the spelling restrictions imposed by the
broad/slender difference in consonants and is written '
after slender consonants; but when written as numbers, only the suffix itself (') is written. In the case of 4 ('
), the final syllable is syncopated before the suffix, and in the case of 9 ('), 20 ('
), and 1000 ('), the final vowel is assimilated into the suffix. Most multiples of ten end in a vowel in their cardinal form and form their ordinal form by adding the suffix to their genitive singular form, which ends in '
; this is not reflected in writing. Exceptions are 20 (') and 40 ('
), both of which form their ordinals by adding the suffix directly to the cardinal (' and ''''). When counting objects, '
(2) becomes ' and '
(4) becomes '. As in French, the vigesimal system is widely used, particularly in people's ages. '''' – 95. The numbers 1 ('
) and 2 (') both have two separate ordinals: one regularly formed by adding '
(', '
), and one suppletive form (', '
). The regular forms are restricted in their usage to actual numeric contexts, when counting. The latter are also used in counting, especially ', but are used in broader, more abstract senses of "first" and "second" (or "other"). In their broader senses, and are not written as '
and ', though '
and ' may in a numeric context be read aloud as '
and ' (e.g., '
may be read as ' or as '''').
Russian One or two letters of the spelled-out numeral are appended to it (either after a hyphen or, rarely, in superscript). The rule is to take the minimal number of letters that include at least one consonant phoneme. Examples: , , (note that in the second example, the vowel letter represents two phonemes, one of which [] is
consonant).
Swedish The general rule is that (for 1 and 2) or '
(for all other numbers, except ', '
, etc., but including ' and '
) is appended to the numeral. The reason is that ' and '
respectively end the ordinal number words. The ordinals for 1 and 2 may however be given an ' form ('
and ' instead of '
and ') when used about a male person (masculine natural gender), and if so they are written '
and '. When indicating dates, suffixes are never used. Examples: '
"first grade (in elementary school)", ' "third edition", but '
. Furthermore, suffixes can be left out if the number obviously is an ordinal number, example: ' "3rd ed". Using a
full stop as an ordinal indicator is considered
archaic, but still occurs in military contexts; for example: '''' "5th company". ==Prefix==