2011-01-20, 02:50 AM
This is quite an interesting question. I looked in one of my grammar books but haven't find a single thing that discusses it. I think you would have to add specifics so there is no room for uncertainty.
I'd probably say "Which president of the United States was Kennedy?" and "How many cars has the person bought before that one?" None of them directly asks what you intended to and I can't think of a way to ask it in English.
I admit Asian languages tackle this so much easily. For Chinese, we simply use 第幾 (which number in a rank/order) to replace ordinal adjectives.
I'd probably say "Which president of the United States was Kennedy?" and "How many cars has the person bought before that one?" None of them directly asks what you intended to and I can't think of a way to ask it in English.
I admit Asian languages tackle this so much easily. For Chinese, we simply use 第幾 (which number in a rank/order) to replace ordinal adjectives.