Editing Ordinal indicator (section)

=== Finnish ===
In [[Finnish orthography]], when the numeral is followed by its [[Head (linguistics)|head]] noun (which indicates the [[grammatical case]] of the ordinal), it is sufficient to write a period or [[full stop]] after the numeral: ''{{lang|fi|Päädyin kilpailussa '''2. sijalle'''}}'' "In the competition, I finished '''in 2nd place'''". However, if the head noun is omitted, the ordinal indicator takes the form of a [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] suffix, which is attached to the numeral with a [[colon (punctuation)|colon]]. In the [[nominative case]], the suffix is {{lang|fi|‑nen}} for 1 and 2, and {{lang|fi|‑s}} for larger numerals: ''{{lang|fi|Minä olin '''2:nen''', ja veljeni oli '''3:s'''}}'' 'I came '''2nd''', and my brother came '''3rd'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>. This is derived from the endings of the spelled-out ordinal numbers: ''{{lang|fi|ensimmäinen}}'', ''{{lang|fi|toinen}}'', ''{{lang|fi|kolmas}}, {{lang|fi|neljäs}}'', ''{{lang|fi|viides}}'', ''{{lang|fi|kuudes}}'', ''{{lang|fi|seitsemäs}}'', etc..

The system becomes rather complicated when the ordinal needs to be [[inflected]], as the ordinal suffix is adjusted according to the case ending: ''{{lang|fi|3:'''s'''}}'' (nominative case, which has no ending), ''{{lang|fi|3:'''nne'''n}}'' ([[genitive case]] with ending ''{{lang|fi|‑n}}''), ''{{lang|fi|3:'''t'''ta}}'' ([[partitive case]] with ending ''{{lang|fi|‑ta}}''), ''{{lang|fi|3:'''nne'''ssa}}'' ([[inessive case]] with ending ''{{lang|fi|‑ssa}}''), ''{{lang|fi|3:'''nte'''en}}'' ([[illative case]] with ending ''{{lang|fi|‑en}}''), etc.. Even native speakers sometimes find it difficult to exactly identify the ordinal suffix, as its borders with the [[word stem]] and the case ending may appear blurred. In such cases, it may be preferable to write the ordinal word entirely with [[letter (alphabet)|letters]] and particularly ''{{lang|fi|2:nen}}'' is rare even in the nominative case, as it is not significantly shorter than the full word ''{{lang|fi|toinen}}''.

{{anchor|Irish}}