Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers in English: FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH...

Hey guys, I'm Alex, thanks for clicking and welcome to this beginner lesson on cardinal

and ordinal numbers.

In this lesson we will focus on the pronunciation of cardinal and ordinal numbers and when to

use them.

Now most of you probably know how to count to 10 in English, but just to quickly review,

let's look at this.

We have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Now these are called cardinal numbers and we use cardinal numbers to talk about quantity.

So here we have quantity.

So for example, I have three sentences here.

I have two sisters.

She is 14 years old.

He has one blu-ray player.

These all use cardinal numbers because they talk about quantity, the number of things

that these people have.

So here, she is 14 years old, 14 years old is the quantity of years that she has been

on the earth, right?

I have two sisters, two sisters, it's a quantity.

He has one blu-ray player, he has one, that is the quantity.

Now ordinal numbers, most of you have probably heard these, especially if you watch sports.

So let's go through them together.

For one, the ordinal number is first, okay?

For two, the ordinal number is second, okay?

And let's say the rest now.

Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth.

Now what you notice is it's really only first, second, and third that sound different from

the rest, right?

The rest, you're just adding "th", "th", "th", "th", "th", which I know is a little difficult.

If you have problems with the "th" sound, just put your tongue between your teeth and

just blow, honestly, just go "th", right?

So everyone, listen and repeat with me, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth.

And you can do this with every number in the English language, okay?

So for example, if you have a number like 21, you have 20, you have 1, the cardinal

number is 21, the ordinal number would be 21st, 22nd, 23rd.

Same with 30, 31st, 32nd, 33rd.

Even if you're talking about the teens, right?

Like 13 is 13th, 14 is 14th, 15 is 15th, and so on, and so on, and so on, okay?

Now, ordinal numbers, we use these when we talk about position or the rank of something,

and we also use it for dates.

So we use this for position, or rank, or dates.

Oh, I'm very sorry about that, that's R-A-N-K, you guys can see that, right?

Now, I have 1, 2, 3, 4 sentences with ordinal numbers, so listen and repeat them with me.

He finished 6th in the race, okay, 6th.

He was in 6th place, so this is his position, his rank in the race.

Today is December 26th, imagine today is December 26th, okay?

I'm the 4th person in line.

The second reason is the best one, okay?

So again, we use ordinal numbers for position, and for rank, or dates.

So please, please guys, work on the pronunciation, especially the "th", the "th", 4th, 5th, 6th.

6th is really difficult, okay?

But I know you guys can do it after some practice.

So if you want to test your understanding of writing, again, I have written these on

the board so you can see the spelling, of writing ordinal numbers and cardinal numbers,

and I guess you can't really test the pronunciation except on your own.

But if you'd like to test what you learn here, check out the quiz on www.engvid.com.

Good luck guys, see you next time.