Practise the thinking. Keep the judgement.
Chinese prefixes, suffixes and word families
Original Chinese study material with English explanations. Simplified Chinese with pinyin; beginner, intermediate and advanced are editorial difficulty labels.
Recognising recurring parts can help you infer a word, but confirm it in context. 第 marks an ordinal; 们 can mark a group of people or plural pronouns; 学 can be part of words about study.
这是我的第三次尝试。
Zhè shì wǒ de dì sān cì chángshì.
This is my third attempt.
学生们在教室里。
Xuéshengmen zài jiàoshì lǐ.
The students are in the classroom.
Chinese nouns do not require a plural suffix. Do not normally combine an exact quantity with 们: say 三个学生.
Try it
What does 第三 mean?
- Third
- Three people
- Thirty
Answer and explanation
Third. 第 forms an ordinal from the number 三.