LES: Lesson - Los números ordinales (Ordinal Numbers)

Gold, silver and bronze medallions, showing 1st place, 2nd place and 3rd place.Los números ordinales (Ordinal Numbers)

If you want to say first in Spanish, there's a word for that, and it's nothing like uno, the word for one. It's primero, the first of what are called the ordinal numbers.

What are Ordinal Numbers

Like the cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers act as adjectives. But instead of being used to count a certain number of objects (cardinal numbers), ordinal numbers provide information on the order of nouns. Compare these two sentences to see the different ways that cardinal and ordinal numbers are used:

  • One dog came through the door.
  • The first dog came through the door.

One dog tells us how many dogs there are, while the first dog tells us the order (implying there are other dogs that will come second, third, and so on).

Los números ordinales en español

We learned cardinal numbers in an earlier module (uno, dos, tres, etc.). While some ordinal numbers are similar in form to their cardinal counterpart, there are differences that you should note carefully. Uno and primero both relate to the number one, where uno = one and primero = first.

In Spanish, the ordinal forms are used most commonly for the numbers 10 and under. They are:

  • First:
    • primero
    • primera
  • Second:
    • segundo
    • segunda
  • Third:
    • tercero
    • tercera
  • Fourth:
    • cuarto
    • cuarta
  • Fifth:
    • quinto
    • quinta
  • Sixth:
    • sexto
    • sexta
  • Seventh:
    • séptimo, séptima
    • sétimo, sétima
  • Eighth:
    • octavo
    • octava
  • Ninth:
    • noveno
    • novena
  • Tenth:
    • décimo
    • décima

You'll notice that each ordinal number was listed with both a masculine (-o) and feminine (-a) form. These adjectives can also be used in the plural (ex: décimos = masculine plural), but it is more common to see ordinal numbers used with singular nouns.

When used as an adjective, ordinal numbers must agree with the nouns they refer to in both number and gender:

  • El segundo libro - The second book (el libro is masculine and singular)
  • La segunda página - The second page (la página is feminine and singular)

NOTE: when primero (first) and tercero (third) are followed by a singular masculine noun, you drop the -o:

  • el primer trimestre - the first trimester
  • el tercer trimestre - the third trimester

Grade Level

One common use of ordinal numbers is to indicate grade level. The noun for grade level is el grado, so we list grades as follows:

  • primer grado = 1st grade
  • segundo grado = 2nd grade
  • tercer grado = 3rd grade
  • cuarto grado = 4th grade
  • quinto grado = 5th grade

A stick note with La actividad de práctica written on it.

Practice Activity

Let´s practice these vocabulary words in the context of a sentence.

Find the correct ordinal number. Remember the noun-adjective agreement rule when choosing the correct ordinal number.

NOTE: You are required to use information from this course to complete all practice activities. Additionally, fill-in-the-blank activities can be very particular: if an item is marked incorrect, double check that it wasn't something as minor as an extra space or a capital letter in the wrong place!

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