When used as an adjective, ordinal numbers must agree with the nouns they refer to in both number and gender: el segundo coche ("the second car"), but la segunda vez ("the second time"). Note also that when primero and tercero precede a singular masculine noun, the final -o is dropped: el primer rey ("the first king"), el tercer trimestre ("the third trimester"). For larger numbers, it is common to use simply the cardinal number, especially in speech. Thus el siglo veinte ("the 20th century") is more common than the cardinal form, el siglo vigésimo, and in writing the numerical form (el siglo 20) is often used. It is also common to word a sentence in such a way that the ordinal form is not used. So, for example, cumple cuarenta y cinco años would be the most common way of saying it is someone's 45th birthday. In general, the ordinal numbers for 11th and above can be considered mostly a formal usage. Abbreviations Ordinal numbers in English take -st for one (1st), -nd for two (2nd), -rd for three (3rd), and -th for the rest of the numbers (4th, 5th,...). In Spanish you add º for all numbers, ª if you are counting feminine nouns, and er (written as a superscript) for shorter versions such as tercer (3er).
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