Asking questions in English.

[aijex ijaz]

Hi. I'd like to know how one can phrase an explicit and direct question so as to elicit the specific answer, 'I'm the fourth [eldest] child of my father'. You see, in the Dhivehi vernacular and in many other languages this is possible, whereas English seems to be lacking in any common and straightforward construction to bring fourth an answer in the nature of: I'm the third/second etc. child of my father.

 

[Tdol]

I'm the eldest\youngest- in between we use ordinal numbers. ;-)

 

[Casiopea]

Hi. I'd like to know how one can phrase an explicit and direct question so as to elicit the specific answer, 'I'm the fourth [eldest] child of my father'. You see, in the Dhivehi vernacular and in many other languages this is possible, whereas English seems to be lacking in any common and straightforward construction to bring fourth an answer in the nature of: I'm the third/second etc. child of my father.

Prompting is commonly used,

Q: Are you the eldest~oldest or youngest (person in your family)?
A: I'm the

eldest~oldest
youngest
2nd eldest~oldest
middle child
baby of the family
2nd child
3rd of four children
an only child

All the best,