Ordinal numbers are not as common as cardinal numbers. But you need to use them whenever you express things that occur in an order or series. For example, in a hotel you may discover that your room is on the eighth floor. To properly use ordinals in German, you have to consider that ordinal numbers are adjectives. That is, you have to choose the form that matches the gender, grammatical case, and number of the noun(s) it modifies.
Word stem
Before you can make use of ordinals it is necessary to know how to form their word stems. This is quite easy and similar to English. All you have to do is to take the cardinal number, e.g. zwei (two), vier (four), fünf (five), sechs (six), etc. and add the suffix –te to it. This results in: zweite (second), vierte (fourth), fünfte(fifth), sechste (sixth). The only exceptions to that rule are the numbers 1and 3: eins (one) becomes erste (first) and drei (three) becomes dritte (third). Now that the basis has been established you can continue to add the appropriate case and gender endings.
Unfortunately, adding the proper endings to adjectives is not that straight in German. That is, it depends on whether you use a noun with a definite article, an indefinite article, or a pronoun. The good news is that indefinite articles and pronouns require the same adjectival endings.
Below you can find, for now, a table that contains the adjectival endings you have to use when you use a noun with definite articles (the).
Singular
|
Masculine (man)
|
Feminine (woman)
|
Neuter (child)
|
| Nominative |
der erste Mann |
die zweite Frau |
das dritte Kind |
| Genitive |
des vierten Mannes |
der fünften Frau |
des sechsten Kindes |
| Dative |
dem siebten Mann |
der achten Frau |
dem neunten Kind |
| Accusative |
den zehnten Mann |
die elfte Frau |
das zwölfte Kind |
As you can see, when you use a noun in the singular with a definite article you have to add the ending –n to: masculine-genitive, masculine-dative, masculine-accusative, feminine-genitive, feminine-dative, neuter-genitive, and neuter-accusative.
Plural
|
Masculine (men)
|
Feminine (women)
|
Neuter (children)
|
| Nominative |
die ersten Männer |
die zweiten Frauen |
die dritten Kinder |
| Genitive |
der vierten Männer |
der fünften Frauen |
der sechsten Kinder |
| Dative |
den siebten* Männern |
den achten Frauen |
den neunten Kindern |
| Accusative |
die zehnten Männer |
die elften Frauen |
die zwölften Kinder |
As you can see, when you use a noun in the plural with a definite article you have to add the ending –n to all forms of the adjective.
* English “seventh” is either sieb-te or sieb-en-te in German. Both forms are correct. You can choose whether you would like to leave out -en- when you turn the cardinal sieben (seven) into ordinal siebte/siebente (seventh).
