ième

The suffix -ième is a French ordinal ending used to form numbers that indicate order. It is the standard ending for most ordinals, producing forms such as deuxième (second), troisième (third), cinquième (fifth), and dixième (tenth). The very first ordinal is an exception: premier for masculine and première for feminine.

Formation and irregularities: To form most ordinals, the suffix -ième is added to the base cardinal numeral (deux → deuxième, trois → troisième, quatre → quatrième, cinq → cinquième, etc.). Some spellings reflect phonetic adjustments, for example trois becomes troisième and neuf becomes neuvième. From onze onward, similar patterns apply (onze → onzième, douze → douzième, quinze → quinzième). For compound numbers, the construction is generally maintained (vingt et un → vingt et unième; trente et un → trente et unième). The only widely used irregular ordinal for “first” remains premier/première, rather than unième.

Gender and agreement: Ordinals formed with -ième generally behave as adjectives that agree with the noun they modify. In practice, many ordinals have the same form for masculine and feminine (deuxième, troisième, cinquième, etc.). The principal exception is premier/première, which marks masculine and feminine forms distinctly.

Usage notes: In formal writing, the spelled ordinals closely follow the numeral. In dates, French often uses abbreviated forms such as 1er (premier), 2e, 3e, rather than the full -ième forms. The -ième suffix thus serves as the dominant mechanism for encoding ordinal position in French beyond the first item.

Etymology: The suffix -ième derives from the historical development of ordinal markers in Old French, influenced by Latin ordinal formations. Today it remains the standard end for most French ordinals, with premier/première continuing to denote the first.