Shortened forms of primero and tercero in Spanish
Some ordinal numbers (i.e first, second, third...) in Spanish have a shorter form when they are placed before a singular masculine noun. This affects two ordinal numbers:
- Primer (first)
- Tercer (third)
Have a look and listen to the following examples:
Feminine nouns
The shorter form is not used in front of feminine nouns:
Plurals
The short form is not used when accompanying feminine or masculine plural nouns either:
Pronoun Usage
The long form of these adjectives (primero / tercero) are used as pronouns (i.e. not accompanying a noun) they do not change and retain their long form.
Have a look:
For a list of ordinal numbers in Spanish see Ordinal adjectives from 1st to 20th in Spanish
To see other cases of apocopation see
- Bueno, malo, grande become buen, mal, gran before a noun (apócope)
- Using cualquier/a to express "any" in Spanish (indefinite adjectives)
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