Timeline for Why is the order for some words that function as ordinal numbers flexible?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| Jun 15, 2020 at 7:40 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Jan 11, 2019 at 3:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglish/status/1083559187207073793 | ||
| Jan 11, 2019 at 2:45 | comment | added | Zebrafish | I disagree with that rule as an absolute rule, that the ordinal ALWAYS comes before the cardinal. If you search for "the two first" in Google books you get results for what we might more commonly write "the two first", either way it's understandable. You might argue that it's incorrect or old-fashioned. There's A History of India Under the Two First Sovereigns of Taimur..." published by Cambridge University Press. Furthermore "the two first" can change the meaning. "the product of the two first terms", "The two first lines have four trochees" (of verses or stanzas), and so on. | |
| Jan 11, 2019 at 2:05 | vote | accept | Rykara | ||
| Jan 11, 2019 at 1:57 | answer | added | Robert W. | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jan 10, 2019 at 23:45 | comment | added | Gustavson | @michael.hor257k Your comment answers the question perfectly: only one cookie can be the first, the last or the next (there can't be three that are the first, the last or the next ones at the same time). In that position, first, last, next modify the noun phrase formed by "three + cookies" (respectively meaning the first, the last and the next set of three cookies). | |
| Jan 10, 2019 at 21:43 | comment | added | Rykara | @Jason Hmm. I'm not seeing one that sounds correct if I use "people in line" instead of "cookies." Google Ngram doesn't find any instances of "[number] next [noun]" but maybe I'm not using it right? | |
| Jan 10, 2019 at 21:24 | comment | added | Jason Bassford | First, context makes a difference. (As per another comment.) Second, just because something is uncommon does not make it incorrect. | |
| Jan 10, 2019 at 21:17 | comment | added | shakeypress | I think some of these sound "off" with cookies, but if you replace "cookies" with "people in line" they sound normal. | |
| Jan 10, 2019 at 21:14 | comment | added | michael.hor257k | Probably because all three cookies are remaining, but only one of them can be last. So "the last three cookies" is the last group of three cookies, but "the three last cookies" sounds like an oxymoron. | |
| Jan 10, 2019 at 21:09 | comment | added | Rykara | @Jason You're probably right that we can't say "never" with full confidence, but those orderings are not correct according to the sources I linked and they certainly sound "off" to me, whereas the other formations do not. (Admittedly, that's a very subjective litmus test.) | |
| Jan 10, 2019 at 21:00 | comment | added | Jason Bassford | I don't agree that the NOT versions are never used. | |
| Jan 10, 2019 at 20:31 | history | asked | Rykara | CC BY-SA 4.0 |