The correct use of “ avo” is for fractions - quinceavo for a 15th, veinteavo for a 20th, and so on- but note, not “ un decimoquinto” or “ un vigésimo.” Using ordinal numbers insteadĪnother acceptable practice, and a way around complex ordinal numbers, is simply to use the cardinal number, e.g. Using ‘ avo’ for ‘th’ and fractionsĪlthough not grammatically correct, many people add the ending “ avo” to the cardinal number to make an ordinal number, which would be roughly equivalent to the English “th.” For example, onceavo for 11th, veintitresavo for 23rd, and soon. This may all appear unnecessary when there are simpler ways to deal with ordinal numbers, but it is worth knowing since they are used frequently in formal text and speech. Nuestro tercer aniversario – our third anniversary but,.While on the subject of gender agreement, when the ordinal number precedes a masculine noun in the case of first and third, the ordinal number drops the ‘o’, for example: La décima quinta vez – the 15th time ( vez, feminine) but if expressed using one word, it becomes la decimoquinta vez, with no accent on decimo, and no ‘a’ in the middle of the word, although it ends with ‘a’.El décimo cuarto partido – the 14th match ( partido, masculine).The ordinal numbers also have to agree in gender with the noun, using an ‘a’ ending for feminine and ‘o’ ending for masculine, for example: Note that vigésimo loses its accent when used as a prefix in a single word, since accents in Spanish are applied according to the position of the stressed syllable. For example, 23rd can be written as vigésimo tercero or vigesimotercero. Separate or togetherĢ1st through 99th can be written as one word or separately, as they have been above. 11-19 – you use décimo in the first place and add primero through noveno therefore:Ī similar structure applies for cardinal numbers 20 through 90, thus: When the numbers get into the tens – i.e.
The numbers from one to ten, or more precisely first to tenth, are worth committing to memory as they appear frequently:
Cardinal numbers in Spanish are fairly straightforward until you get into the billions whereas ordinal numbers -first, second, third, etc.- get complicated way before then, and are certainly more complex than they are in English.
0 kommentar(er)
