Phil And I'm Phil. We've got a question from one of our listeners.
Question 我在课本上看到第一名 “first place” 前面没有定冠词 “the”，一等奖 “the first prize” 前面有定冠词 “the”。请问这是怎么回事？什么情况下序数词的前面不用加定冠词 “the”？
Phil This is a question about ordinal numbers – those are numbers like 'first', 'second' and 'third' that show how others relate in a sequence and allow us to put them in order. And it's also about 'the' – the definite article, which also can be a bit confusing.
Examples My office is on the third floor. Come out of the lift and it's the second door on the left. （我的办公室在三楼。从电梯出来，左手边的第二扇门就是我办公室的位置。）
I think the fifth episode was the best in the series, it was so funny! （我认为第五集是这部剧中最好看的一集，太有意思了！）
Jiaying 在第一个例句中，我的办公室在多个楼层中的三楼 “the third floor” 走出电梯左手边多扇门中第二扇门 “the second door” 的位置。序数词 “third” 和 “second” 前面都加定冠词 “the”。
在第二个例句中，我认为这部剧中最好看的集数是第五集 “the fifth episode”。序数词 “fifth” 前加定冠词 “the”。
还有一种序数词前需要加 “the” 的情况，那就是英式英语中日期的说法。由于说几月几号的时候，指的是每个月份当中特定的一天，所以表示日期的时候，序数词前应加上定冠词 “the”。比如：“7月9日” 就是 “the 9th of July”。听两个例句。
Examples My birthday is on the 19th of October. （我的生日是10月19日。）
The party is on the 11th of December. （聚会在12月11日举办。）
Jiaying 上面我们讲了通常情况下序数词的前面需要加 “the”。我们可以说：The first prize is one million dollars.（一等奖奖金是一百万美元。）这里，“first” 用来特指多个奖项中的 “头等” 奖，前面加定冠词 “the”。
Phil But we can use ordinal numbers as adverbs and adjectives, and when we do this, we don't need to use the definite article.
Jiaying 当序数词在句子中作形容词或副词使用时，前面通常不加定冠词 “the”。在同样的谈论奖项的语境中，如果想表达 “我得了一等奖”，那么可以说：I won first prize. 由于这里的 “first” 作形容词使用，意思是 “一等的，头等的”，前面不加定冠词 “the”。再来听两个例句。
Examples I tried my best and won first prize. （我尽了最大努力，获得了一等奖。）
I've never been happier than when I finished first in my school competition. （我在学校比赛中获得第一名时是我最开心的时刻。）
Phil When we talk about someone's rank in a competition or race, we often use an ordinal number and the word 'place'. I was in first place in the race. And now, when we do this, we don't usually use the definite article 'the'.
Jiaying 没错。在表达 “竞赛、赛跑中获得的名次” 时，通常用 “序数词 + place” 来表示 “得了第几名”。比如：I was in first place in the race.（我是赛跑的第一名。）来听一个例句。
Example He was in first place at the beginning of the race and ended up being in third place. （他在比赛开始时是第一名，最后却得了第三名。）
Phil So, you can see that we often use 'the' with ordinal numbers when we're referring to one specific thing.
