Discovering the Significance of the 44th President and Country in the World

  • Thread starter Thread starter jobyts
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    English
AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around formulating questions that yield "44th" as an answer, specifically in the context of President Obama being the 44th President of the USA and a hypothetical country being the 44th largest in the world. Participants explore various ways to phrase questions, such as "Which president is Obama?" or "What number president is Obama?" They also touch on the linguistic challenges of asking questions that lead to ordinal answers, noting that English lacks a direct term for "how many-eth." Comparisons are made with other languages, like German, which can express this concept more naturally. The conversation highlights the complexities of language and the nuances of ordinal rankings in both political and geographical contexts.
jobyts
Messages
226
Reaction score
60
Obama is the 44th President of USA. or,
The country x is the 44th largest in the world.

To get an answer 44th, what's the question to ask?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
jobyts said:
Obama is the 44th President of USA. or,
The country x is the 44th largest in the world.

To get an answer 44th, what's the question to ask?

-1- (not sure how to word it...)

-2- What is the rank of country x among all countries in terms of geographical area?
 
russ_watters said:
Chartreuce moose.

Google wants to know if you meant "Chartreuse Moose".
 
I think you would use some sort of simile here. Come to think of that, I discovered you are comparing two different things wrt two separate criteria. Similie looks like only work if you are describing two different things using one same quality or something like that.

ranked as largest as all the US presidents to now.. and this doesn't make any sense to me.
 
jobyts said:
To get an answer 44th, what's the question to ask?

What is half of 22th?
 
jobyts said:
Obama is the 44th President of USA. or,
The country x is the 44th largest in the world.

To get an answer 44th, what's the question to ask?


President Obama is America's -blank- President

or,

This country is the -blank- largest in the world.

sorry if I misunderstood you
 
rootX said:
I think you would use some sort of simile here. Come to think of that, I discovered you are comparing two different things wrt two separate criteria. Similie looks like only work if you are describing two different things using one same quality or something like that.

ranked as largest as all the US presidents to now.. and this doesn't make any sense to me.

May be, I did not explain my question properly in my original post. I'm not trying to combine both the statements with a single question and single answer.

Let's say, the statement is "Obama is the 44th President of USA". How would you ask a question on this, so that the answer is 44th.
 
jobyts said:
Let's say, the statement is "Obama is the 44th President of USA". How would you ask a question on this, so that the answer is 44th.

One way, albeit open to alternate interpretations, would be:

"Which president is Obama?"

The "which" question can be answered with "44th", but is also a bit ambiguous.

Where did this question come from? Is it a class assignment, or something you thought of as you are learning English, or both?
 
  • #10
Danger said:
What is half of 22th?

11th :-p
 
  • #11
redargon said:
11th :-p
I think that we have contextual disagreement here. By your approach, half of 1/4 would be 1/2.
Oh, wait... I see the problem. I was assuming that there was a 1/ in front of the numbers, since the 'th' indicated a fraction to me.
 
  • #12
jobyts said:
May be, I did not explain my question properly in my original post. I'm not trying to combine both the statements with a single question and single answer.

Let's say, the statement is "Obama is the 44th President of USA". How would you ask a question on this, so that the answer is 44th.

You could ask:
What number president is Obama?

Or, phrased a little differently:
What president number is Obama?

Or, to be more mathematical:
Including Obama, how many presidents of the United States have there been?

EDIT: The answer to the last one might be just a plain 44, but some might say, "He's the 44th President"

EDIT2: Then you'll get the people that ask if that includes acting presidents, or presidents that replaced presidents who died in office, or interrupted consecutive terms, etc. :smile:
 
Last edited:
  • #13
MATLABdude said:
The answer to the last one might be just a plain 44
No way... Obama is a .44 magnum.
I don't know whether or not Yanks truly understand that the US was pretty much the most hated nation on the planet during the past few decades, even by those who they claimed to be allied with (such as we Canucks). That turned around almost instantly (at least here in Canada) with Obama's election. It gives us all hope that society as a whole might become a bit better, now that you no longer have arrogance and idiocy at the helm.
 
  • #14
Thanks to Grover Cleveland, Obama is actually the 43rd person to be president of the US.

I hope that confuses things even more! :)
 
  • #15
Danger said:
No way... Obama is a .44 magnum.
I don't know whether or not Yanks truly understand that the US was pretty much the most hated nation on the planet during the past few decades, even by those who they claimed to be allied with (such as we Canucks). That turned around almost instantly (at least here in Canada) with Obama's election. It gives us all hope that society as a whole might become a bit better, now that you no longer have arrogance and idiocy at the helm.

What 'choo talking 'bout?
http://blog.pennlive.com/pennsyltucky/2008/01/AP080123017792.jpg

(yes, I'm sorry, it MUST be this big!)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #16
"The how many-eth president of the US is Obama?"
is clear but probably also wrong, I suppose?
 
  • #17
berkeman said:
Where did this question come from? Is it a class assignment, or something you thought of as you are learning English, or both?

I just remembered someone telling me many years ago there's no word for "how many-eth" in English. I just wanted to confirm that. I think most languages have a word for it.

Apparently, in English, there's no direct way to ask a question, if the answer is an adjective. (there could be exceptions)

In my mother tongue (Malayalam: the only language alive which is a palindrom if written in English :)), there's no direct way to ask if the answer is an adjective. But if the adjective is a number or rank, like 44th, there exists a word equivalent to "how many-eth".
 
  • #18
Sorry for the Cheney thing...

The way I'd ask would be:
"Numerically, which president is Obama?"

and

"Regarding population, where does Malaysia rank?" or
"What is Malaysia's rank in terms of population?"
 
  • #19
jobyts said:
I just remembered someone telling me many years ago there's no word for "how many-eth" in English. I just wanted to confirm that. I think most languages have a word for it.

Apparently, in English, there's no direct way to ask a question, if the answer is an adjective. (there could be exceptions)

In my mother tongue (Malayalam: the only language alive which is a palindrom if written in English :)), there's no direct way to ask if the answer is an adjective. But if the adjective is a number or rank, like 44th, there exists a word equivalent to "how many-eth".

The word is nth - pronounced "enth".

Obama is the nth president. What is n?
 
  • #21
Chi, is that Dickless Cheney? I'm not great at remembering faces. :confused:

edit: I just realized after posting that there was a second page. :redface:
 
  • #22
What about, "What is the ordinal number of Obama's presidency?"

(I realize nobody will know what you mean and you'll have to explain it anyway.)
 
  • #23
You can evade asking the direct question by putting it like: "Isn't Obama the 20th president?"
Of course, with the risk that you only get "no, he's not" for an answer.
 
  • #24
jobyts said:
I just remembered someone telling me many years ago there's no word for "how many-eth" in English. I just wanted to confirm that. I think most languages have a word for it.

I don't think it is only English, I can't think a way of asking it in Swedish either (or German, although my German is a bit rusty), at least not in a way that sounds "natural".
Maybe it is a "problem" with all Germanic languages?
What about other indo-european languages?
 
  • #26
f95toli said:
I don't think it is only English, I can't think a way of asking it in Swedish either (or German, although my German is a bit rusty), at least not in a way that sounds "natural".
Maybe it is a "problem" with all Germanic languages?
What about other indo-european languages?

I think in German, it's possible. From the englishforums, someone replied the following:
.
.
.
my native language is German and yeah, in German you could easily ask such a question by "der wievielte?" (lit: "the how manyeth?").
 
  • #27
jobyts said:
in German you could easily ask such a question by "der wievielte?"

You need 'dongleschuessenfeintzerbleaglemachternaschurfritzenbergle' to say 'cat'... and you come up with 3 syllables for 'manyeth'? What the hell is wrong with you people? :-p
 
  • #28
I had complettely forgotten about that word...
So, the question in German would be "Der Wievielte Präsident ist Obama?"

or?
 

Similar threads

  • Poll Poll
How many PF users are from English-speaking First World countries?
Replies
1
Views
1K
Electronic Structure (magnetic quantum number)
Replies
6
Views
8K
News Historic visit by presidents of Taiwan and China
Replies
2
Views
2K
News Obama in India: What Can Be Achieved?
Replies
9
Views
2K
News US Troops Enter Poland, But For How Long?
Replies
2
Views
2K
News Panama Papers - Huge tax leak exposes Putin aides, world leaders, stars
2
Replies
73
Views
9K
Explore Weird Population Distrib. of China, India, USA, Russia, Canada
Replies
19
Views
3K
Overcoming English Difficulty to Learn Physics
Replies
21
Views
2K
  • Sticky
How to use the "w" in www
Replies
0
Views
4K
Can clean energy replace fossil fuels?
2
Replies
80
Views
7K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top