3 ms·
While I couldn't comment on how they evolved (and I suspect there are many different answers), I'd point out that English has a very complicated pattern for ord
by wyattpeak 8y ago
While I couldn't comment on how they evolved (and I suspect there are many different answers), I'd point out that English has a very complicated pattern for ordinals:
1, ends in 1 except 11, 111...: -st
2, ends in 2 except 12, 112...: -nd
3, ends in 3 except 13, 113...: -rd
everything else: -th
(also 0, most people say zeroth but nobody really feels comfortable with it.)
However they came to be, there's no mental load in applying them and nobody who speaks English natively ever much thinks about it.
- innocenat 8y agoThis. Come from country who use Type 0 (i.e. no plural whatsoever), English is already complicated and make no sense at first.
- acjohnson55 8y agoYeah, totally agree that there are plenty of things that don't make sense in English. The grammar is easy, but the sure number of irregular froms has got to be really difficult to deal with. At least the rules for plurals in some of the more complex examples are reegular.