# pang-ilan



## zhonglin

Can somebody help me translate this to English?  Pang-ilang presidente si Benigno Aquino?


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## mataripis

Pang ilan sa naging Pangulo ng Pilipinas si B.Aquino?


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## DotterKat

zhonglin said:


> Can somebody help me translate this to English?  Pang-ilang presidente si Benigno Aquino?



The long way to say it would be:

What is the ordinal number of Benigno Aquino in the list of Philippine presidents?

A more colloquial way to say it would be:

Benigno Aquino is what number among the Philippine presidents?
What is Benigno Aquino's number among the Philippine presidents?

See this related thread here.


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## zhonglin

DotterKat said:


> The long way to say it would be:
> 
> What is the ordinal number of Benigno Aquino in the list of Philippine presidents?
> 
> A more colloquial way to say it would be:
> 
> Benigno Aquino is what number among the Philippine presidents?
> What is Benigno Aquino's number among the Philippine presidents?
> 
> See this related thread here.



Thank you a lot for your translation, 

1)Can I say I'm the youngest among my sibling*s (should I not drop "s" even though there's only 2 of us)?
*2)Can I say "I'm in the middle of the queue towards counters" (or at the middle?) (context: when you're queuing towards the cashier)
3)Can I say "whats the ordinal number of the last car that you bought? can we make this colloquial?


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## DotterKat

zhonglin said:


> 1)Can I say I'm the youngest among my sibling*s (should I not drop "s" even though there's only 2 of us)?*



No.
The real issue here is the incorrect usage of the prepostion _among_ in a sentence that compares only two distinct entities. Since there are only two siblings, use the comparative adjective _younger_. I would say:

I am the younger of two siblings. 

[For two or more siblings, use the superlative adjective _youngest_: I am the youngest of three (or more) siblings.]

Generally speaking, _among_ is the preposition to use for a group of greater than two entities (for instance more than two siblings), particularly when the group is considered in a whole and collective sense:

I am the youngest among my siblings.
I am the youngest among three (or more) siblings.
*
*


zhonglin said:


> 2)Can I say "I'm in the middle of the queue towards counters" (or at the middle?) (context: when you're queuing towards the cashier)



No.
You don't need to include "towards the counters" since the normal progression of a queue is indeed towards the cashier or counter. Simply say:

I am in the middle of the queue / line.



zhonglin said:


> 3)Can I say "whats the ordinal number of the last car that you bought? can we make this colloquial?



To prompt a response containing an ordinal number for a question of this nature, the converstion would be something like one of these:

Was that your fifth or sixth car? 
No, that was my seventh car.

That last car you bought, that was your sixth, right? 
No, that was my seventh.

You just bought your sixth car, right?
No, I just bought my seventh car.

Did you just buy yourself a sixth car?
No, I just bought myself a seventh car.

*Note*: In the future, kindly direct questions pertaining solely to the English language to the English Only Forum.


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## zhonglin

Thank you for all your help, I've learned a lot, I will open threads in English Only Forum for my English inquiries in the future.


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