"The how manyeth..." ;-)?

1 2

How do you have to ask a question if you want to know what number in order or line a person/thing is?

E.g.:
"Louisiana is the 18th state of the USA"
--> "The how manyeth state is Louisiana?"???
(I know this is wrong, but would it be understood?)

How would you ask such a question properly??

Thanks for your suggestions.

Regular Member569

Rocketeer:

Wow, what a great question! What is your native language? Does your language have the equivalent of "manyeth?" As you note there is no such word in English but I think we should nominate it for inclusion because it would come in handy.

("Come in handy" means it would be useful.)

There is no simple equivalent to "manyeth." You could ask, "When was Louisiana admitted to the Union?" but that would imply you want to know the date it joined. In fact, I'm finding it difficult to think of an elegant way to ask the question.

"In terms of order of admission to the Union, where does Louisiana fall?"

"When was Lousiania admitted to the Union in terms of the order of admission?"

"In order of admittance, when did Louisiana join the Union?"

Hmmm. I don't really care for any of these sentences but they are technically correct. Can anyone else come up with a better example?

Tom

New Member08

taiwandave:

How about:

Louisiana's joining brought the number of states in the Union to what total?

Full Member287

taiwandave:

Or:

Louisiana's joining brought the number of states in the Union to what new total?

Mike in Japan:

The closest I can get is 'ranking';

What is Loiusiana's rank among American states?

Senior Member4,453

Pemmican:

Wow - I didn't know that this is such a hard question ***
I nearly broke my head already to find out how it could be asked properly, but the best way I could think of was "What number (of states) is Louisiana in joining the US?".

I was asking a lot of native English speakers from the US, the UK, and Australia already, but neither did anyone know ***

Rocketeer, my native language is German and yeah, in German you could easily ask such a question by "der wievielte?" (lit: "the how manyeth?").

Wow - thanks for your help everyone!
Cheers

Pem

Guest:

What is Loiusiana's position in the American States ranking?

MrPedantic:

I agree about the goodquestionness, Pemmican.

'What day of the month is it today?' 'The 18th.'
'What hole are you on?' 'The 18th.'
'Which birthday did you say it was?' 'My 18th.'
'Where did Manchester United come in the league, last season?' '18th.'
'What's that, your 17th beer?' '18nzzth...'

Not much help there. Every kind of sequence seems to have its own phrase.

?'Where does Louisiana come, in the roll of US States?' '18th.'

(Sorry. Best I can do.)

MrP

Veteran Member12,806

Anonymous:

I am frm India .we have a equilavent word of Manyeth in our language but when speaking in english i just got struck today and was searching for the word.by the way is "manyeth" correct?

Reji

"The how manyeth..." ;-)?

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