cardinaltoordinal

Cardinaltoordinal is a term used to describe the transformation from cardinal numbers, which express quantity (for example one, two, three), to ordinal numbers, which indicate position or order (for example first, second, third). It can refer to either a linguistic concept or a computational function that converts a numeric value or a cardinal numeral into its ordinal form.

In English, cardinaltoordinal involves a mix of irregular and regular patterns. The most common irregulars are first, second, and third. Beyond these, many ordinals are formed by adding a suffix such as -th to the cardinal form (fourth, fifth, sixth), with certain endings altering to -ieth for multiples of ten (twentieth, thirtieth). When the number ends in 1, 2, or 3, the ordinal suffix commonly reads as -st, -nd, or -rd, yielding forms like twenty-first, twenty-second, twenty-third, while most other endings use -th (twenty-fourth). Hyphenation is typical for compound ordinals, as in twenty-first. For numbers used as dates or lists, conventions may vary by style guide.

Other languages implement cardinaltoordinal with varying morphology. Some use distinct words for ordinals, others apply suffixes or agreement markers that reflect gender, number, or case. In software, locale-aware implementations must handle irregular forms, compound numbers, punctuation, and formatting rules across languages and contexts.

Overall, cardinaltoordinal captures the link between quantity and order, with applications in education, linguistics, and software localization.