Ordinal numbers

Cardinal numbers (një, dy, tre…) tell you how many; ordinal numbers (i/e parë, i/e dytë, i/e tretë…) tell you the position in a sequence — first, second, third. In Albanian the two behave quite differently.

Ordinal numbers are Class 2 adjectives: they need a linking article — i or e — placed immediately before them, chosen to agree with the noun they describe. And unlike cardinal numbers, which come before the noun (tre libra, "three books"), ordinals follow it: libri i tretë, "the third book."

The 2nd through 5th are the least regular: i dytë (second), i tretë (third), i katërt (fourth), i pestë (fifth) all change shape a little when the ordinal ending is added. The very first one is fully irregular — i/e parë doesn't derive from një at all.

From six onward, the rule is simpler and mechanical: put the linking article in front of the cardinal, adding -të only if the cardinal doesn't already end in it. Numbers that already end in -të — gjashtë, shtatë, tetë, nëntë, dhjetë, every teen (njëmbëdhjetë, dymbëdhjetë…) and every regular ten (tridhjetë, pesëdhjetë…) — stay exactly as they are: i gjashtë, i dhjetë, i njëmbëdhjetë, i tridhjetë. Numbers that don't already end in -të — njëzet, dyzet, njëqind, një mijë — get it appended: i njëzetë, i dyzetë, i njëqindtë, i njëmijtë.

Compound numbers (21 and up) attach the ordinal ending only to the last piece: njëzet e një ("twenty-one") becomes i njëzetenjë ("twenty-first"), njëzet e dy becomes i njëzetedytë.

Only the feminine plural has its own shape: e para, e dyta, e treta… every other combination of gender, number and case reuses the base form shown above, agreeing only through the linking article.