9.1 - Ordinal Numbers (1st - 31st) - Reality Czech

9.1 – Ordinal Numbers (1st – 31st)

We learned ordinal numbers in 7.2 – Ordinal Numbers (1st-12th) in order to use conversational clock time. Now we’re going to need them again to tell dates.

The table below lists ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc. — i.e. the numbers used to tell what order something comes in). These ordinal numbers are important now because we are going to learn how to state the date. Therefore, the table below gives 1st – 31st.

As you can see from this table, many of the ordinal numbers look very much like their cardinal counterparts. You really can just memorize them, however here are a few things that might help you: For many of them, all you have to do is add -ý. For the numbers pět, devět, deset, dvacet, třicet, you just have to change -et/ět → –átý, pět → pátý, dvacet → dvacátý, etc. Note that with numbers such as 21st, 22nd, etc., both numbers in Czech are ordinal, i.e. dvacátý první. Alternate forms also exist where the numbers are reversed (jednadvacátý, dvaadvacátý, etc.) Ordinal numbers are adjectives and thus take normal adjectives endings. Just by looking at these, you can tell that most of them are hard stem adjectives (end in -ý), while první and třetí are soft stem.	první	1st
	druhý	2nd
	třetí	3rd
	čtvrtý	4th
	pátý	5th
	šestý	6th
	sedmý	7th
	osmý	8th
	devátý	9th
	desátý	10th
	jedenáctý	11th
	dvanáctý	12th
	třináctý	13th
	čtrnáctý	14th
	patnáctý	15th
	šestnáctý	16th
	sedmnáctý	17th
	osmnáctý	18th
	devatenáctý	19th
	dvacátý	20th
	dvacátý první (jednadvacátý)	21st
	dvacátý druhý (dvaadvacátý)	22nd
	dvacátý třetí (třiadvacátý)	23rd
	dvacátý čtvrtý (čtyřiadvacátý)	24th
	dvacátý pátý (pětadvacátý)	25th
	dvacátý šestý (šestadvacátý)	26th
	dvacátý sedmý (sedmadvacátý)	27th
	dvacátý osmý (osmadvacátý)	28th
	dvacátý devátý (devětadvacátý)	29th
	třicátý	30th
	třicátý první (jednatřicátý)	31st

In Czech, these are either written out in full (první, druhý, etc.) or they are marked by putting a period after the number, so 1. den = první den, 2. den = druhý den, etc.