Ordinal Numbers: Eerste, Tweede, Derde | Dutch Grammar

Ordinals are the first, second, third of counting — the words for position in a sequence. English builds them with a messy mix of -st, -nd, -rd, -th plus a few irregulars. Dutch is cleaner: it has essentially two endings, -de and -ste, split at a single clear boundary, plus exactly three irregular forms to memorise. Once you know where the boundary falls and learn those three exceptions, you can build every ordinal in the language. And because ordinals behave like adjectives, the same word can end in -de or -de + nothing depending on the noun — we'll cover that too, since dates rely on it.

The one boundary you need: 1–19 take -de, 20+ take -ste

Here is the rule that does ninety percent of the work. Take the cardinal number and add:

-de for the numbers 1 through 19 (with three irregulars below)
-ste for 20 and above — twenty, thirty, hundred, thousand, and everything built on them

Number	Cardinal	Ordinal	English
1	een	eerste (irr.)	first
2	twee	tweede	second
3	drie	derde (irr.)	third
4	vier	vierde	fourth
5	vijf	vijfde	fifth
6	zes	zesde	sixth
7	zeven	zevende	seventh
8	acht	achtste (irr.)	eighth
9	negen	negende	ninth
10	tien	tiende	tenth
11	elf	elfde	eleventh
12	twaalf	twaalfde	twelfth
13	dertien	dertiende	thirteenth
19	negentien	negentiende	nineteenth
20	twintig	twintigste	twentieth
30	dertig	dertigste	thirtieth
21	eenentwintig	eenentwintigste	twenty-first
100	honderd	honderdste	hundredth
1000	duizend	duizendste	thousandth

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The dividing line is between negentiende (19th, -de) and twintigste (20th, -ste). Everything from twenty up — including compound numbers like eenentwintigste — takes -ste because the ending attaches to the -tig tens part.

The three irregulars: eerste, derde, achtste

Only three ordinals don't follow the plain "cardinal + ending" pattern, and they're high-frequency, so learn them as fixed words.

eerste (1st) — not built from een at all; it's its own stem, like English first (not "oneth"). Despite being a low number, it takes -ste, the same ending as 20+.

Dit is de eerste keer dat ik hier ben.

This is the first time I've been here.

derde (3rd) — you might expect driede from drie, but the i drops: derde. Compare English third losing the vowel of three.

We wonen op de derde verdieping.

We live on the third floor.

achtste (8th) — acht already ends in -t, so instead of adding -de you add -ste: acht + ste, never achtde. Saying achtde is a giveaway accent for learners.

Haar zoon zit in groep acht; het is zijn achtste schooljaar.

Her son is in year eight; it's his eighth school year.

Note the small spelling logic behind achtste: a stem ending in a voiceless consonant pairs naturally with the voiceless -ste, while -de would force an awkward -tde cluster.

Ordinals inflect like adjectives

In Dutch an ordinal sits in front of a noun and behaves exactly like an adjective — which means it usually carries the adjective ending -e. Conveniently, every ordinal already ends in -e (tweede, derde, twintigste), so in the common case (after de, het, een, or a possessive) nothing changes:

het tweede huis aan de linkerkant

the second house on the left

mijn eerste auto was een oude Opel

my first car was an old Opel

Crucially, ordinals keep their -e even where a plain adjective would drop it — that is, before an indefinite, singular het-word. A normal adjective loses its ending there (een mooi huis, "a nice house"), but an ordinal does not: you say een tweede huis, never een tweed huis. So unlike most adjectives, ordinals are effectively invariable — they end in -e in every position.

Voor een tweede kind is er gewoon geen ruimte.

There's simply no room for a second child. (het-word 'kind', indefinite — ordinal keeps -e)

Ze hebben een derde poging nodig.

They need a third attempt. ('poging' is a de-word; the ordinal keeps -e, as always)

In everyday Dutch, then, you can safely treat ordinals as always ending in -e.

Ordinals in dates and ranking

The biggest real-world use of ordinals is dates and rankings. In a spoken date, the day is an ordinal: de derde mei (the third of May). Written as a figure it's just 3 mei, but read aloud it becomes the ordinal.

Mijn verjaardag is op de eenentwintigste maart.

My birthday is on the twenty-first of March.

Zij werd tweede bij de marathon van Rotterdam.

She came second in the Rotterdam marathon.

Voor de derde keer deze week is de trein vertraagd.

For the third time this week the train is delayed.

Note in the marathon example that tweede stands alone after the verb (no noun follows) — exactly like English "came second." Ranking ordinals work as predicates this way.

Common Mistakes

❌ de eende keer

Incorrect — 'first' is the irregular 'eerste', never built from 'een'.

✅ de eerste keer

the first time

❌ de achtde verdieping

Incorrect — a stem ending in -t takes -ste: 'achtste', not 'achtde'.

✅ de achtste verdieping

the eighth floor

❌ de twintigde editie

Incorrect — from twenty up the ending is -ste: 'twintigste'.

✅ de twintigste editie

the twentieth edition

❌ de driede plaats

Incorrect — 'third' drops the vowel: 'derde', not 'driede'.

✅ de derde plaats

third place

❌ op de eenentwintigde maart

Incorrect — the ordinal attaches to the -tig tens, so it's -ste: 'eenentwintigste'.

✅ op de eenentwintigste maart

on the twenty-first of March

Key Takeaways

Two endings, one boundary: -de for 1–19, -ste for 20 and up (the split is negentiende → twintigste).
Memorise the three irregulars: eerste (1st, -ste), derde (3rd, vowel drops), achtste (8th, -ste after the -t).
Compound numbers from twenty up keep -ste: eenentwintigste, vierentachtigste.
Ordinals inflect like adjectives but already end in -e, so in practice they don't change.
Dates and rankings are the main use: de derde mei, zij werd tweede.

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