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A:I was the 1st one in queue/I was the second player B:How many?

Is what B said correct? Or what is the question for ordinal numbers? The question from B is not asking how many people in the queue was, it's asking the number A was in the queue. In my native language we have a "how" question for that but I was struggling to ask the same in English so I apologize perhaps my question doesn't make sense but I would really appreciate your help.. Would it be okay to ask :"what number? which number were you? or something like that sorry for bad English and thank you in advance

  • "How many" is the question for cardinal numbers. But you seem to be asking about ordinal numbers. If so, look around in this forum for many previous version of the question. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/102618/how-manieth-as-an-ordinal-number-question – GEdgar Jun 19 '20 at 19:11

2 Answers2

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You could use the word place to represent a position in a series.

B: What place?

youzer
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In your context, an ordinal is a position: you can ask "which" or "where."

A: “I was the first in the queue.” B: “Which position [were you in the queue]?”

D: “What was your position in the queue? E: “I was the first in the queue.”

F: “Where were you in the queue?” G: “I was the first in the queue.” (This works if both know the context.)

H: “I was first in the race.” J: “Where did you come in the race?”

K: “I was the second player” L: “Which position?”

M: “Which player were you?” N: “I was the second player.”

P: “Where were you [in the game] Q: “I was the second player.”

Greybeard
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