We use ordinal numbers to express things like "number one" or "second". Chinese makes things a lot simpler by using one prefix for all ordinal numbers: “第 dì”. This character is simply placed in front of the number.

第 + Number

第 一  dì-yī The first
第 二  dì-èr The second
第 三  dì-sān The third
第 四  dì-sì The fourth

How to use ordinal numbers

Full pattern with measure words: 第 + Number + Measure word + Subject.

  • 第一 个 星 期
    dì-yī ge xīngqī

  • 第二 本 书
    dì-èr běn shū

  • 第九 个 晚上
    dì-jiǔ ge wǎnshang

There are some words that don't use measure words because they themselves are already measure words. For example: “天 tiān”, “周 zhōu” and “年 nián”.

  • 第一 天
    dì-yī tiān

  • 第二 周
    dì-èr zhōu

  • 第三 年
    dì-sān nián
Last modified: Sunday, 2 May 2021, 5:33 PM