Ordinal numbers are words representing position or rank in a sequential order by size, importance, chronology, and so on.
Once you know the numbers themselves (referred to by linguists as the cardinal numbers) in Croatian, ordinal numbers are very easy to form.
For all cardinal numbers except the numbers 1, 2, 3 or 4, you can form the ordinal number by simply adding the ending -i to the cardinal number (-ti to numbers that end with a vowel like sto (hundred), dvjesto (two hundred) etc.). Examples:
pet (five) →
peti (fifth)
dvanaest (twelve) →
dvanaesti (twelfth)
tristo (three hundred) →
tristoti (three hundredth)
The ordinal numbers in Croatian behave just like adjectives which means:
|
CARDINAL NUMBER
(GLAVNI BROJ)
| ORDINAL NUMBER (REDNI BROJ) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| masculine (muški rod) | feminine (ženski rod) | neuter (srednji rod) | |
| jedan (1) | prvi (e.g stan) | prva (e.g. kuća) | prvo (e.g. pivo) |
| dva (2) | drugi | druga | drugo |
| tri (3) | treći | treća | treće |
| četiri (4) | četvrti | četvrta | četvrto |
| pet (5) | peti | peta | peto |
| šest (6) | šesti | šesta | šesto |
| sedam (7) | sedmi | sedma | sedmo |
| osam (8) | osmi | osma | osmo |
| devet (9) | deveti | deveta | deveto |
| deset (10) | deseti | deseta | deseto |
| jedanaest (11) | jedanaesti | jedanaesta | jedanaesto |
| dvanaest (12) | dvanaesti | dvanaesta | dvanaesto |
| sedamnaest (17) | sedamnaesti | sedamnaesta | sedamnaesto |
| dvadeset (20) | dvadeseti | dvadeseta | dvadeseto |
| četrdeset osam (48) | četrdeset osmi | četrdeset osma | četrdeset osmo |
| sto dvadeset dva (122) | sto dvadeset drugi | sto dvadeset druga | sto dvadeset drugo |
| sto (100) | stoti | stota | stoto |
| petsto (500) | petstoti | petstota | petstoto |
Neil Armstrong was the first man on the Moon.
→ Neil Armstrong je bio
Answer
prvi
čovjek na Mjesecu.
Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize.
→ Marie Curie je bila
Answer
prva
žena koja je osvojila Nobelovu nagradu.
Not that I’m counting, but this is your third beer today!
→ Nije da brojim, ali ovo ti je već
Answer
treće
pivo danas!
Josip is his fifth child, but the first son.
→ Josip je njegovo
Answer
prvo
dijete, ali prvi sin.
I think we’re the first people who did that!
→ Mislim da smo mi
Answer
prvi
ljudi koji su to napravili!
This is your fourth mistake today.
→ Ovo ti je
Answer
četvrta
pogreška danas.
This is the hundredth time I’m telling you the same thing!
→ Ovo je
Answer
stoti
put da ti govorim istu stvar!
Ivo was my first love.
→ Ivo je bio moja
Answer
prva
ljubav. (ljubav = feminine!)
Sara and Mara are the first women in our company.
→ Sara i Mara su
Answer
prve
žene u našoj firmi.
This blog is about Croatian language, culture, history and literature.
