Now we are going to talk about ordinal numbers in Farsi. Ordinal numbers in
Farsi they come all the cardinal one,
cardinal numbers, with the suffix "م" (om), so let's look at some examples.
Number one is یک and then in order to make it mean "first,"
we should put this suffix "م" (om) it to: یکم, means first.
And we can continue the same. We had "دو", is number two. Now we want to make
it "second." We had this "دو", then we have "دوم".
"سه". Here we have some changes. We drop "ه" from the end and write it
like "سوم". Then "چهار", "چهارم".
"پنج". We add the suffix "om" and
"پنجم" and like this.
شش، ششم. هفت، هفتم. هشت، هشتم، نه، نهم. ده، دهم. یازده، یازدهم.
And so on and so forth. So it's important to remember the
suffixs "om." Just here, in the case of the number 3, we have more changes than
that. "سه" changes to "سوم" and another point is related to number one.
Number one has two other forms too. So "یکم" means first, but sometimes
people use the word "اول". It's the same. It's the Arabic form of number one: first.
"اول" means first. Or "نخست". So for first, you can say "یکم", you can
say "اول", or you can say "نخست". Another point about the ordinal numbers in Farsi
that how we make a question when we want to ask about ordinal number. So
let's look at an example. Here we want to know that for example we are in
university and we want to ask someone in which year he is in. So in order to ask
that question, we ask that person: تو (you) کلاس, or better to say سال, then
چندم, we use the question word "چند", and add the suffix "om" to it
"تو سال چندم هستی؟"
"In which year are you in?"
As you can see we use a "اضافه" combination here. "سال چندم". So we
use the question word "چند" and add the suffix "om" to it .Why we add suffix "om,"
because we expect an ordinal number, not a cardinal number. So the ordinal
number comes with "om," so the question word has "om" as well.
"تو سال چندم هستی؟"
The answer can be: سال
سوم
سال سوم. As you can see the answer has
the suffix "om" as the question has, and the point is that where we put the
ordinal number, we put it after the noun. سال سوم, means third year.
But this is very important, because sometimes students get confused.
They use it like cardinal numbers. Cardinal numbers come before the noun.
For example, you say "دو سال". And here we have "سال دوم".
"دو سال" means two years.
But "سال دوم" means second year. As you can see the ordinal numbers first
second, (یکم، دوم، سوم، چهارم), they come after the noun in a اضافه
combination. دو سال، سال دوم.
سه سال, three years, سال سوم.
Third year.
پس سال اول، سال دوم، سال سوم، سال چهارم.
Or:
کلاس اول، first class, کلاس دوم، کلاس سوم، کلاس چهارم.
It is very important to remember the ordinal number comes after the noun that
belongs to it, in a اضافه combination, with the "E" sound.
سال دوم. سال سوم.