dìyī wèi péngyou guòlái le.

The first friend came over.

Breakdown of dìyī wèi péngyou guòlái le.

• 朋友péngyou: friend
• 了le: perfective particle
• 位wèi: polite person classifier

Questions & Answers about dìyī wèi péngyou guòlái le.

Why is 位 used after 第一?

位 is a measure word (classifier) for people. In Mandarin, when you count or identify nouns, you often need a classifier between the number/ordinal and the noun.

So:

• 第一位朋友 = the first friend
• structure: 第 + number + classifier + noun

For people, 位 is a polite or respectful classifier.

Compare:

• 第一位朋友 = the first friend (polite / more formal)
• 第一个朋友 = the first friend (more neutral, everyday)

Both are grammatical.

What is the difference between 位 and 个 here?

Both are classifiers, but they have different tones:

• 位 is more polite and is commonly used for people
• 个 is the general, very common classifier

So:

• 第一位朋友 sounds a bit more respectful or polished
• 第一个朋友 sounds more casual and everyday

If you are just talking about friends in normal conversation, 第一个朋友 is very common. Using 位 does not make the sentence strange—it just sounds slightly more formal.

Why is there no 的 in 第一位朋友?