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There are many pupils in the classroom. Peter was the n th( n is a positive integer) student to arrive. Now I want to ask Peter about what n is. How can I ask him? It seems that it is very difficult to begin with a wh- question in situations like this.

As I have noticed previous similar questions about this.

Where did Peter fall in the sequence of arrival?

Is this idiomatic ?

PPJack
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  • This topic is brought up often here. I can find at least five examples: How-to-ask-about-ordinal-place-of-an-offspring, How-to-ask-nth-time-of-something, How-to-phrase-a-question-that-must-be-answered-with-an-ordinal-number, Framing-a-question-whose-answer-is-an-ordinal-number, Returning-for-the-nth-time – J.R. Sep 12 '15 at 09:06
  • The first question has links to the other two questions. Between all three of them you can find your answer. Just use a little common sense, e.g. swap "birth order" with "order/sequence of arrival" etc. Is it idiomatic? Not terribly, but it's English and it's understandable and it's one question. Deadrat's suggestion would not supply an ordinal number, but a cardinal one e.g. Five students arrived before Peter. – Mari-Lou A Sep 12 '15 at 09:14