# ensimmäinen ... toinen



## Gavril

Moi,

Supposing that you were answering a multiple-choice question with only two choices:

_Mikä on luvun 324 neliöjuuri?
_
_A) 19
B) 18

_How would you say "The second [answer] is correct, the first is incorrect"?

I would guess that "the first" would be translated as _ensimmäinen _and "the second" as _toinen_. However, since _toinen ... toinen _normally means "one ... the other", I'm not completely sure.

Kiitos


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## kirahvi

_Toinen on oikein, ensimmäinen on väärin._

_Toinen_ can be ambiguous, but especially if you add _ensimmäinen on väärin_, there's no real possibility of being misunderstood.


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## altazure

If the choices have been labeled A) and B), we might say "A on oikein" or "B on oikein" to avoid the ambiguity of _toinen_.


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## Määränpää

Maybe that's why we distinguish _toka_ ("second") from _toinen_ ("other") in spoken language!

On the other hand, we can use the literary _jälkimmäinen_ ("latter") when there are only two choices, and if there are more than two choices, _toinen_ can only mean "second".


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