How can I properly ask this question? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicates:
How to phrase an asking sentence that must be answered with an ordinal number?
Framing a question whose answer is an ordinal number
Given that I want to know Barack Obama is the 44th President of U.S.A, how can I frame a question like:
The how manyeth president is Barack Obama?
Solution 1:
I'd go with the following structure:
Q: Where does Obama fall in the sequence of US presidents?
A: [He's the] 44th [president].
This reflects similar usage when discussing, for instance, rankings:
Q: Where did Harvard fall on the U.S. News & World Report list this year?
A: 2nd.
Solution 2:
For a relatively well-educated audience, you might try:
What ordinal number represents the position of Barack Obama in the succession of US presidents?
Solution 3:
I think the OP wants this to be question structure which could be asked of any president. I think giving examples would make it clear.
If George Washington was the 1st President of the United States, and John Adams was the 2nd, what number president is Barack Obama?
Obviously if you wanted to ask the question on John Adams you could simply replace his example with another; e.g. Theodore Roosevelt (the 26th).
Solution 4:
This is quite a tough question. My suggestion is:
- How many presidencies preceded Obama? 43
- Including Obama, how many presidencies have we had? 44
- Which president count does Obama have?
- What's the chronological number of obama as a president of America?
I hope I could help you a bit
Solution 5:
In the numerical listing of Presidents of the United States, what number was Obama?
or shortly
What number is president Obama?
I heard the latter from Jay Leno while he was asking this to a girl in his show.
Another alternative, as suggested in comments given below, is:
What number president is Obama?