Pronouncing ordinal numbers

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Pronouncing ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers (counting numbers) are often difficult for students to pronounce in English. The difficulty is that most ordinal numbers end with the -th combination of letters, and some have a combination of consonants without a vowel to aid in pronunciation.

To begin:

1st     First
2nd    Second
3rd     Third

Now, all of the rest use -th

4th     Fourth
5th     Fifth
6th     Sixth
7th     Seventh
8th     Eighth
9th     Ninth
10th   Tenth

Larger numbers continue the same pattern:

21st     Twenty-first
32nd    Thirty-second
43rd     Forty-third
56th     Fifty-sixth
67th     Sixty-seventh
78th     Seventy-eighth
89th     Eighty-ninth

Practice saying number out loud in order to hear the -th at the end of most ordinal numbers.