 Re: Right conversion from declarative to interrogative!
There is no English way to say "How many-eth was ..."
It's a hole in our capabilities.
If you want to know that Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States, you can only say something like "What number president was Thomas Jefferson?" and that's not very satisfactory.
It's easy if you want to say "Who was third" or "Who was the fortieth?" but not if you know the name of the person and want to know which one in sequence he was.
It's too bad we don't have "How many-eth president was Thomas Jefferson?" -- but we don't. |