[Grammar] Obama is 44th president of US

[rock-onn]

Obama is 44th president of US.

what is the question form of it? In my mother tongue I could ask the question in just three words. But in English I couldn't.

What is the ordinal of Obama in the chronological list of presidents of US?

The above question is the best I could come with.

 

[Skrej]

Obama is the 44th president of the US.

Note that regardless of the number value, you'll need a definite article before it, both in the affirmative and interrogative forms.

 

[Tdol]

We are asked this type of question several times a year.

I guess it will float around until English creates an answer for it.

 

[White Hat]

Try this (like it's done here):

What number president is Obama? (by Will Cleveland, Mark Alvarez, and Tate Nation)

 

[Tdol]

There are many attempts to solve the conundrum, but until one is adopted by the wider speech community, we will always be left without a clear answer. Given that the question comes from non-native speakers, it suggests that native speakers don't see the issue, other than ESL teachers.

 

[Matthew Wai]

https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/google.php?q=how%20manieth

The search engine still does not work at my end.

 

[Rover_KE]

Try clicking on the link and then on 'Did you mean: how%20 manieth'.

 

[White Hat]

I think everyone is making a big deal out of it. Even I, someone whose native language (unfortunately) is not English, had thought of the "what number president is X?" variant, which I then googled up. English is the RICHEST language on Earth, and it's just a matter of doing a little thinking before you arrive at something that's going to work.

 

[Rover_KE]

Is there a simple answer in other languages?

 

[Boris Tatarenko]

You can easily ask such a question and answer it in Russian. Honestly, I have never said someting like this before, so I have to side with Tdol that it's not important.

 

[White Hat]

Is there a simple answer in other languages?

In Russian we could say

Каким по счёту президентом является Обама [Kakim po schyotu prezidentom yavlyaetsya Obama]?

Каким = what/which
по счёту = in count/by count
президентом = president
является = is
Обама = Obama

Basically, it's like saying

Which president, in order, is Obama?

 

[Matthew Wai]

In Chinese, we simply say “奥巴马是第几任美国总统？”

奥巴马 = Obama
是 = is
第几任 = how manieth
美国总统 = US President

The direct translation is 'Obama is how manieth US President?'

 

[Tdol]

第几任 = how manieth

Do you have separate forms for how many/how manieth in Chinese?

 

[Matthew Wai]

Yes.

多少 = how many / how much
第几 = how manieth