cardinales y ordinales

First published 13 December 2011 @ sólo algunas palabras

Last Friday, on the way back from school, Timur and I talked about difference between números cardinales (cardinal numbers) and números ordinales (ordinal numbers). I used to confuse which are which until I mentally connected ordinal with Spanish masculine noun orden (order). So, that’s it: ordinal numbers are those that refer to positions within some ordered list, and cardinal numbers are... the other ones (those which represent quantities). Unlike English, where the ordinal numerals beyond 1st, 2nd and 3rd are typically formed by simply adding -th suffix to the corresponding cardinal numerals, Spanish has rather different terminology for ordinals.

OK, to an English speaker primero, segundo, tercero etc. should not sound exactly alien. Apart from first, second, third, fourth and so on, English has another set of ordinal numbers derived from Latin: primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary... well, that’s about as far as it gets. I’ve never encountered quinary, senary and higher in either literature or conversation. Also, if you ever learned basics of music theory in a language other than English, the names of intervals are all very similar to Spanish ordinal numbers. But this is probably a topic for next post.

It is said that ordinal numbers above ten are seldom used in Spanish. Indeed, go googling for “mil novecientos sesenta y siete” and you’ll get thousands of hits. Now try to do the same with “milésimo noningentésimo sexagésimo séptimo”. The obvious explanation is that ordinals are significantly longer than cardinals. Still, it’s good to know one when you see one, so I think the table below may come handy *.

Cardinales		Ordinales
0	cero	—	—
1	uno	1º	primero
	un	1er	primer
	una	1ª	primera
2	dos	2º	segundo
		2ª	segunda
3	tres	3º	tercero
		3er	tercer
		3ª	tercera
4	cuatro	4º	cuarto
5	cinco	5º	quinto
6	seis	6º	sexto
7	siete	7º	séptimo
8	ocho	8º	octavo
9	nueve	9º	noveno
10	diez	10º	décimo
11	once	11º	undécimo
12	doce	12º	duodécimo
13	trece	13º	decimotercero
14	catorce	14º	decimocuarto
15	quince	15º	decimoquinto
16	dieciséis	16º	decimosexto
17	diecisiete	17º	decimoséptimo
18	dieciocho	18º	decimoctavo
19	diecinueve	19º	decimonoveno
20	veinte	20º	vigésimo
21	veintiuno	21º	vigésimo primero
22	veintidós	22º	vigésimo segundo
23	veintitrés	23º	vigésimo tercero
24	veinticuatro	24º	vigésimo cuarto
25	veinticinco	25º	vigésimo quinto
26	veintiséis	26º	vigésimo sexto
27	veintisiete	27º	vigésimo séptimo
28	veintiocho	28º	vigésimo octavo
29	veintinueve	29º	vigésimo nono
30	treinta	30º	trigésimo
31	treinta y uno	31º	trigésimo primero
32	treinta y dos	32º	trigésimo segundo
33	treinta y tres	33º	trigésimo tercero
40	cuarenta	40º	cuadragésimo
50	cincuenta	50º	quincuagésimo
60	sesenta	60º	sexagésimo
70	setenta	70º	septuagésimo
80	ochenta	80º	octogésimo
90	noventa	90º	nonagésimo
100	cien	100º	centésimo
101	ciento uno	101º	centésimo primero
200	doscientos	200º	ducentésimo
300	trescientos	300º	tricentésimo
400	cuatrocientos	400º	cuadringentésimo
500	quinientos	500º	quingentésimo
600	seiscientos	600º	sexcentésimo
700	setecientos	700º	septingentésimo
800	ochocientos	800º	octingentésimo
900	novecientos	900º	noningentésimo
1000	mil	1000º	milésimo
1001	mil uno	1001º	milésimo primero
1002	mil dos	1002º	milésimo segundo
2000	dos mil	2000º	dosmilésimo
2011	dos mil once	2011º	dosmilésimo undécimo
3000	tres mil	3000º	tresmilésimo
4000	cuatro mil	4000º	cuatromilésimo
5000	cinco mil	5000º	cincomilésimo
10.000	diez mil	10.000º	diezmilésimo
100.000	cien mil	100.000º	cienmilésimo
500.000	quinientos mil	500.000º	quinientosmilésimo
1.000.000	un millón	1.000.000º	millonésimo

* In Diccionario panhispánico de dudas and Spanish Wikipedia, the symbols for ordinal numerals contain a full stop (1.º, 3.^er, 5.ª), while Collins dictionaries do not (1º, 3^er, 5ª). I used this latter style in the table. Also, starting with 4, I listed only masculine ordinals. I hope you don’t think this sexist. To get feminine forms, simply replace the terminal -o’s with -a’s and º’s with ª’s). Maybe one day Real Academia Española will admit uses like 1^@ and segund@, why not.

La canción de la semana #296

...is Río Negro by Christoph Müller and Eduardo Makaroff (of Gotan Project fame), from El Gaucho, a film by Andrés Jarach.

Falsos amigos

First published 8 November 2011 @ sólo algunas palabras

The other day, I was chatting with a friend of mine about Spanish/English false friends: the words that look or sound similar but often mean very different things. Classic examples of these are constipado vs constipated and embarazada vs embarrassed. A good list of such falsos amigos is compiled by Laura K. Lawless.

Some words are written (although not pronounced) exactly the same in English and Spanish, for instance these:

Word	English	Spanish
actual	existing in reality	current, present
agenda	a list of matters to be taken up	diary
arena	an enclosed area for the presentation of spectacular events	sand
cargo	freight	charge; position
hay	cut and dried grass	there is, there are
local n	a person who lives nearby	location, premises, site
mama	mother	breast
manga	a Japanese comic style	sleeve
mayor	the leader of a city	bigger; older
media	plural of medium; environment	sock, stocking, pantyhose; mean, average; half
once	one and only one time; as soon as	eleven
pan	flat vessel used in cooking	bread
quince	a tree, Cydonia oblonga, or its fruit	fifteen
real	existing in reality	existing in reality; royal
red	a colour	network, web
sensible	reasonable	sensitive
sin	a violation of a moral or religious law	without
taller	more tall	workshop
tan	a darkening of the skin after exposure to UV light	so, as

La canción de la semana #295

Nine minutes of beauty: Peace Pipes (Pipas de la Paz) by legendary Argentinian prog-rockers Arco Iris.

La canción de la semana #294

...is Las Cuarenta by Antonio Carmona in duet with Concha Buika. This song appears on Carmona's new album De Noche (read more here).

Dear Diary 33

by Rod

'I only have to look at food and I put on weight' [Thinks: She must look at an awful lot of food is all I can say.]

'Isn't he sweet. Did I say that out loud?' Amazingly, this was said about me – admittedly by a very drunk dyke. Funny, I've never seen myself in those terms...

As Geordie wouldn't pay Scouser, the patio didn't get finished; Geordie had to do it himself. Mrs Geordie had insisted on a difficult diagonal pattern for the tiles (If you’re not paying, go for the best, that's what I always say.) I had a look at the new bit he had laid. Geordie had them lined up fine in one direction but totally wrong in the other. 'It's not really Scouser's fault but I can't line them up both ways because of the way he did it originally.' Rubbish! For the technically minded you just draw a line down both diagonals and where they meet is where you put the first tile on the new bit. 'Simples.' It does not look good...but Geordie can - and does - blame Scouser. (Better than admitting it's his fault to Mrs Geordie – she's scary.)

Talking of Scouser, his grandson had a tattooist kit for his 18^th birthday. Yep! He asked Scouser if he could practise on him. He now sports quite possibly the worst tattoo I have ever seen. And the grandson is going to 'improve' it the next time they meet up. I look forward to seeing the result...

We finally got fed up with having no water pressure so we had a reserve tank and a pump fitted. Unfortunately I fell for the sales talk about having the biggest tank possible. We are now the proud possessors of a 1000litre water tank. Talk about trying to ignore the elephant in the corner...still we are unlikely to run out of water – unless we have a water cut an power cut at the same time.

Herminia told us how lovely the front of our house looked. We hadn't actually started to repaint it at the time said it. Maybe she is colour blind or just being polite?

Everybody in the village knows about Geordie's drinking habits now. He is only allowed 3 litres of beer and 60 cigarettes a day. All rationed by Mrs Geordie. But he's a canny lad. When he goes for his daily 3 bottles he buys an extra, large, can and hides in the plaza and drinks it down with an extra fag before toddling home. Unfortunately all the bread, milk and veg delivery men have noticed and point him out to all and sundry. He still thinks no-one has noticed. Bless him.

The Toxteth Terminators are back. Drunk all day puking in the bar peeing in the street (an that's just the women!) They must have just got out of prison again. A Spanish girl wants to rent their house when they are away... I suggested to her this was probably not a good idea. They've gone again now, but not forgotten.

One of the Spanish families we know is going to Edinburgh. The husband is going to drive. He says it is easy, based on the 200 yards he drove on a totally deserted private lane in England with us a couple of years ago. I think he's in for a shock. They were having difficulty finding accommodation, then we realised they had decided to go the week before the Edinburgh Festival. Still all seems to be OK now. STOP PRESS No, they have just been to the house to get yet another email sorted out. So far they have booked rooms (twice) in a 4* hotel, cancelled them and then booked an apartment.

Antonio across the road, rested his bike against the boot of his shiny new car car then slammed the garage door. Result big dent in the boot lid...

Guardian Reader has scrapped another tyre! Only this time, as they no longer make that model of tyre, he needs to buy 2! I think the garage is having a laugh... Apparently when driving he is better at turning right than left. This could be a bit limiting. He also decided to go for broke whilst overtaking and went head-to-head in a game of chicken with a white transit van coming the other way on a windy mountain road whilst he was overtaking a slow car. He lost. Apparently all three passengers in the car were reduced to tears and thought they were going to die. (Brown trousers and bicycle clips all round?)

Bertha and Desperate Dan called. (The ones who never pay for a round in the pub...) They never call me so they must have a problem... Yep! Their PC has broken! They have never backed up their data - 6 years' worth! They have already 'borrowed' my recovery software and I talked them through 'safe mode' and modifying the BIOS and I have even offered them an installation disc they can use – but I'm not going to actually do the new install for them. They still had the cheek to ask if they could they also 'borrow' a memory stick for their data backup? 'No...'

DD&BB were driven by friends to a pub so they could see their daughter. Sat down, bought 2 drinks for themselves but not their friendly driver and his wife! Paid of their own meal separately and didn't pay towards the petrol either! Lovely people.

All the paint fell off our garage door so we had to repaint it. We finally settled on a 2-pack epoxy. The trouble is it starts to harden as soon as you mix the two components together. So I had just two hours to get both doors painted – before the paint set rock hard and the sun came round to that part of the house and burned what I had just done. The speed I would have liked to paint at was that of the 'William Tell Overture' the speed I could actually get the paint on to was more 'Handel's Largo'. It was a close-run thing! The last bit of paint solidified in the tin as the sun came round onto the garage doors and the temperature shot up to unbearable.

Mr & Mrs GR rushed up breathlessly and asked where the metalwork shop was that they had just visited in the next village. Huh? They described it perfectly right down to the receptionist! No, I couldn't work it out either. I didn't ask...

There we were, minding our own business in the queue in the bank, when a very irate builder with three big, burly, muddy, employees in tow marched up to the front - funnily enough we didn't protest. He then treated us to a tirade about the liars and cheats on the local council who hadn't paid him for work he had done. He then proceeded to name them one by one! After this he made a great show of asking each of his workers how much he was owed and paid it out of his own bank account. They looked very embarrassed but no doubt were very glad to get their money. I suspect there has been a similar problem with the new road bridge that has just been built. When I left in mid-October it was all but finished. A full month later it is still not open. Maybe that builder is waiting for his money too?

We are used to the local children practising their English on us but the Gypsy boy's 'Good morning' turned out to be 'Give money' when we listened more closely.

After arriving at a restaurant on a Sunday/Festival day without a reservation and being kindly found a table, my table-mate panicked when told there may not be a set meal that day muttering: 'I'm not paying for a la carte' then standing up to leave without checking – even after being found a table on a very busy day!
Has Dear Diary reached its 'sell by' date? Please let me know what you think. I get very few replies from most of the people I send Dear Diary to. I'm sure that interesting, odd and quirky things happen to you as well. I'd love to hear about them.
That's all folks!

La canción de la semana #293

...is called Yo Soy Salsamuffin. Yes, that's right! After a five-year break, the one and only salsamuffin man Sergent Garcia is back with a new album, Una y otra vez.

La canción de la semana #292

Silly, silly, silly. And not very, um, politically correct: Pamela Chu, performed by "los creadores de la technobanda", the Mexican band Vaqueros Musical.

Molinas y molinos

From the latest (November 2011) issue of Fuerteventura Grapevine:

Fuerteventura's windmills are identifiable by gender. Female windmills (moilinas) are one storey high rectangular buildings, while male windmills (moilinos) are 2 or 3 stories and circular.

Molinos date from mid to late 1700s, they were round and built out of stone and wood and whitewashed with lime. The miller's tools were stored on the ground floor, the grain on the second and the milling machinery on the top floor.

Most moilinos and moilinas have four sails although there are some with six or even twelve.

La canción de la semana #291

...is Lamento boliviano, performed by Argentinian rockers Enanitos Verdes.