In today’s Spanish lesson we will learn how to form ordinal numbers in Spanish and when to use them. Numbers are often ignored Spanish words because one would think that there are much important Spanish topics to cover first. Nevertheless, it’s important to learn them correctly at the beginning of your Spanish learning, because we use them quite frequently in speech.
Just as cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers are adjectives. Uno (one) is cardinal number and primero (first) is ordinal number. The commonly used ordinal numbers in Spanish are from ‘first’ to ‘tenth’:
- first – primero, primera, primeros, primeras
- second – segundo, segunda, segundos, segundas
- third – tercero/ a, os, as
- fourth – cuarto/ a, os, as
- fifth – quinto/ a, os, as
- sixth – sexto/ a, os, as
- seventh – séptimo/ a, os, as
- eighth – octavo/ a, os, as
- ninth – noveno/ a, os, as
- tenth – décimo/ a, os, as
As you can see above, ordinal numbers (like any other Spanish adjectives) have feminine and masculine forms as well as singular and plural forms (la primera vez – the first time, mi segundo gato – my second cat etc.). Numbers primero and tercero when followed by a masculine singular noun drop the final o (el primer piso – the first floor, su tercer hijo – her third son). However, if the number goes after the noun, the final o is not dropped (el piso primero, su hijo tercero). Using the ordinal numbers before the nouns they modify is more frequent, but if the noun is a street name or a member of royalty, we have to use the ordinal number after the noun (Isabel primera – Isabel The First, la Calle Quinta – the Fifth Street).
From ‘eleventh’ we use cardinal numbers in Spanish (La oficina de Marisol está en la planta 16 (dieciséis). – Marisol’s office is on the 16th floor.).
When we talk about dates, we always use cardinal numbers (3 de febrero = el tres de febrero, not el tercero de febrero).
Abbreviations
To write Spanish ordinal numbers we use superscript ‘o’ for masculine nouns (Joaquín vive en el 4o piso. – Joaquín lives in the 4th apartment.) and ‘a’ for feminine nouns (Valencia es la 3a ciudad más grande de España. – Valencia is the 3rd biggest city in Spain.)
When we write the ordinal numbers in Roman numerals, we don’t use the superscript (Alfonso XII – Alfonso XII, el siglo VIII – the 8th century).
In our Spanish school Escuela El Tándem you will learn this and much more about Spanish words. Sign up for our Spanish courses and start improving your Spanish today!
