howmanieth?!!!

[English4everyone]

Our teacher said "Mr. G. W. Bush was the 43rd US president" and he asked us to make a question for this sentence (answer). Is this question correct?
Howmanieth / Howmanyeth US president is Mr. Bush?
If it's not correct, would you please make the correct question for me.
Thanks very much.

 

[charliedeut]

Hi,

I found a similar question:What is the ONE word for asking in which position something is placed (eg to get answer first/second )? - Yahoo! Answers. So maybe "Ordinal for G. W. Bush's Presidency?" would be close to what youa are looking for. However, maybe there are more natural ways to ask.

Greetings,

charliedeut

 

[BobK]

Hi,

I found a similar question:What is the ONE word for asking in which position something is placed (eg to get answer first/second )? - Yahoo! Answers. So maybe "Ordinal for G. W. Bush's Presidency?" would be close to what youa are looking for. However, maybe there are more natural ways to ask.

Greetings,

charliedeut

1 This has been discussed here before.

2 I don't think the 'ONE word' requirement is fair. Some languages don't have words for everything in every culture.

Between friends, 'howmanieth' would work, but it's not formally acceptable. The natural way for me to phrase the question would be something like 'Where does he come in the series of US presidents?'

b

 

[Rover_KE]

See also this discussion.

Rover

 

[SoothingDave]

What number president was he?

 

[Barb_D]

What number president was he?

I SO agree with this.
You are likely to hear "43rd" anyway. But if the person says "43," was any information actually lost?