How is the ordinal suffix chosen?

Turkish ordinals use four-way vowel harmony. The last vowel of the cardinal word decides the suffix vowel: a or ı gives -ıncı, e or i gives -inci, o or u gives -uncu, and ö or ü gives -üncü.

Why does altı become altıncı and not altıinci?

When the cardinal stem ends in a vowel, that vowel drops before the ordinal suffix and the harmony vowel takes over. So altı loses its final ı and gains -ıncı to form altıncı.

Which word in a multi-word number takes the suffix?

Only the final word of the cardinal phrase is made ordinal. For example yirmi bir (21) becomes yirmi birinci, with the suffix attached to bir.

What about one, three, and four?

Bir becomes birinci, üç becomes üçüncü (ü harmony), and dört becomes dördüncü in standard Turkish. The tool applies last-vowel harmony to drive these forms.

Does it support zero or negatives?

No. Ordinals describe position, so they start at 1. The tool asks for a positive whole number and rejects zero or negative input.

Turkish Ordinal Words

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Turn numbers into Turkish ordinals

Ordinal numbers answer “which one in order” — first, second, third. In Turkish these are formed by adding a suffix to the cardinal number, and the exact suffix depends on vowel harmony. This tool takes any positive integer and produces the correct ordinal word, such as birinci, ikinci, altıncı, or üçüncü.

How it works

First the integer is converted to its cardinal Turkish form (for example 6 → altı). Then the ordinal suffix is chosen by looking at the last vowel of that word and applying four-way harmony:

last vowel a or ı → -ıncı
last vowel e or i → -inci
last vowel o or u → -uncu
last vowel ö or ü → -üncü

If the cardinal stem ends in a vowel, that final vowel is dropped before the suffix attaches. In a multi-word number, only the last word becomes ordinal.

Example

1   -> birinci
2   -> ikinci
6   -> altıncı
3   -> üçüncü
21  -> yirmi birinci

Tips and notes

Ordinals begin at 1; zero and negatives are not valid ordinals.
The displayed cardinal helps you see how the suffix was derived from the last vowel.
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