Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[yoshi-pooh]

Hi, everyone!

George W. Bush is the( )th president of the United States.

I've made up several possible questions to ask the number to fill in the blank.

・What number is George W. Bush in the order of US Presidents?
・What number president is George. Bush?
・What president is George W. Bush?
・How many presidents were there before George W. Bush?
・How manyth president is George W. Bush?

I've heard it is difficult to ask ordinal numbers directly in English, but I assume there must be the most common way. How would you ask normally or naturally?

I'm especially curious about the use of "manyth". Is it accepted as a correct English word?

Thank you!

yoshi-pooh

[Lorikeet]

I never heard of "manyth" before. Did you make it up?

[yoshi-pooh]

Hi, lorikeet.

No, I didn't. In fact, there are more than 1,000 hits if you google it.

yoshi-pooh

[Lorikeet]

Well Yoshi, I went to Google, and the first hit was a question from an ESL student asking if "manyth" was correct English. The people who answered said no. Someone said, "But there are many Google hits." And another one answered, "They are mostly questions from ESL students." I think your question will be one of those now!

Anyway, the regular dictionary did not list the word, and I have never heard of it.

[yoshi-pooh]

Hi, everyone!

Thanks again, Lorikeet. I should have checked the sites more carefully. Now I know that "manyth" is not a correct English word, and not even known to many native speakers of English.

So, what about other expressions? How would you ask the question instead of using "manyth"? I've made up several possible questions to ask, but I'm not still sure how native speakers of English naturally say. I've found on the Intenet similar Qs given by non-native speakers like me regarding this issue, but it seems like different people have different opinions.

・What number is George W. Bush in the order of US Presidents?
・What number president is George W. Bush?
・What president is George W. Bush?
・How many presidents were there before George W. Bush?

Of the questions above, which one would you possibly use? Or are there better ones?

yoshi-pooh

[lotus]

Hi Yoshi-pooh,

All of the four sentences above are valid.

If you change "manyth" to "nth", you might be able to ask the question in a proper way.

What nth (number) president is president George W. Bush?
George W. Bush is what nth (number) president (of the United States)?

Or, you might say (as in the original sentence):

George W. Bush is the nth president of the United States. (Here, the question is implied.)

Nth is the ordinal number in a series of presidents, of which George W. Bush is the latest.

http://www.wordsmyth.net/live/home.php?script=search&matchent=nth&matchtype=exact
(#3)

Google schmoogle; as I've said for the nth time, be careful of using search engines to draw conclusions on grammar.


--lotus
_________________
War does not make one great --Yoda

[Lorikeet]

I was going to say I'd never heard "nth" but in reality, I've never heard it the way you used it in the questions. However, I've definitely heard "for the nth time."

[yoshi-pooh]

Hi, Lorikeet, Lotus

Thank you for your replies.

yoshi-pooh