Sir,
I am a teacher of English in a Secondary
School in Kerala, India.I am haunted by my students' question as how
to frame a question so as to get the italicized word as answer in the following statement. " Jawaharlal Nehru is the
first Prime Minister of India".
Sijumon Devasia / Joby Joseph
H.S.A. English
St. Mary's H.S.
Mankulam Idukki
Dear Joby & Siju,
It
is interesting how much we get asked this question! However, unlike in
many Indian dialects, it is not possible to ask a question where you
would get
the first as an answer, unless you asked ‘what number Prime
Minister is Nehru?’ which is not good English. Instead, we would
probably ask ‘have there been any Prime Ministers before Nehru?’, to
which the answer would be ‘no, he is the first’. Or, we
would ask ‘is Nehru the first or second (third/fourth etc) Prime
Minister?’, to which the answer would be ‘he is the first’.
Yours sincerely,
Aileen ThomsonEnglish Faculty Office <english.office@ell.ox.ac.uk>
Oxford University
Which is the ordinal representing Nehru's position in the chronology of Indian Prime Ministers?
ReplyDelete(Though it is a quite unnatural construction)
What is the ordinal status of Jawaharlal Nehru as the Prime Minister of India ?
ReplyDeleteDear Rajeev Joseph, I've noticed your reply to Jobi & Siju, regarding how to frame a question so as to get the answer Jawaharlal Nehru is the first PM of India'. Is there anything wrong in asking the question as: 'What is the order of Jawaharlal Nehru among the Prime Ministers of India?'
ReplyDeleteDear Radhakrishnan,
DeleteIt is not my reply but the one from Oxford University.
What is the chronological order of Jawahar Lal Nehru among the prime ministers of India?
ReplyDeletewhat is the ordinal position of Nehru among the prime ministers of India?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the ordinal status of Nehru among the prime ministers of India?
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ReplyDeleteWhat is the ordinal position of Nehru as prime minister of India?
ReplyDeleteJose Sir,
DeleteYou didnt keep your word.
a new question word "howmanieth"is gaining acceptablity now a days. lets start using it to make it popular..
ReplyDeleteenglish lovers need not worry for not having exact word for that..many international languages including Arabic, one of the oldest languages, don't have exact traslation for "ethramathe?".