Questions on Ordinals

[Prax Cortez]

Hello everybody! I’m a newbie here.

Somewhere in this Forum I stumbled on the discussion on asking questions that get ordinal answers. When I visited one or two other language forums, I found similar discussions. I read something like “What number president is he?” which accordingly is about the most natural way of asking the question to get the answer “He is the (first, second, 100th) president.” I wish to confirm if this indeed is one of the natural ways native speakers make questions on ordinals (you see, I’m a Filipino and my mother tongue is Tagalog). In addition, what if the position is not as known to both speakers as a president and if the situation is more specific or complicated? How do we ask the question, for example, to get the following answers? 1. He is the 6th chairman of the board; 2. He is 9th placer in the first Philippine bar exams; 3. This is the hundredth time this question was asked; 4: This is the 50th among 100 questions posted so far; 5. He is the 2nd born in the family.

Arguments: 1. Suggesting an ordinal in the question such as “Is he the sixth chairman of the board?” or “Is he 9th placer…?” or “Is this 50th among 100 questions…? etc., seems unnatural unless the context requires that the ordinal(s) be included. 2. Questions that elicit cardinals for answers seem unnatural because the questions expect an ordinal (I don’t know, I’m not an English native speaker).

Can anyone help me please with the above question problems, if possible in dialog fashions understandable to EFL learners?

Thanks in advance.

Prax Cortez

[Beeesneees]

[Mkostya]

Thanks,

this is very interesting topic, thank you for explanation!

[Prax Cortez]

Thanks a lot for the explanation. Now I'm enlightened.

[Prax Cortez]

Hi, Permalink,

Thanks a lot for your kind explanation.

Prax Cortez