Ordinal numerals are derived from cardinal numerals by adding the suffix -de or -ste. The suffix -de is more or less restricted to the ordinals derived from the cardinal numerals corresponding to 0 through 19, with the exception of the irregular form eerstefirst and the form achtsteeighth. Note that the ordinal derdethird is not derived from the cardinal numeral drie, but contains the morpheme der-, which also appears in dertien (13) and dertig (30). The ordinal vierde, on the other hand, is derived from vier (4), not from the irregular morpheme veer-, which appears in veertien (14) and veertig (40); cf. *veerde.

Higher ordinals can also end in –de, provided they are complex forms ending in one of the ordinals in (152) with that suffix. Two examples are given in (153).

In all other cases, the ordinal is derived from the cardinal by adding the suffix -ste. We illustrate this for some round figures in example (154). The fact that biljoenste sounds somewhat odd probably reflects the fact that the use of such a high ordinal numeral is uncommon in speech.

The formations in (155) are also often regarded as ordinal numerals; the form in (155d) is the interrogative form of the ordinal, derived from hoeveelhow many and the form in (155e) is an indefinite form related to zoveelso many. The last form is interesting in that it can be used to form complex ordinals; cf. het honderd en zoveelste ongelukthe hundred and umpteenth accident.

Note that laatste (as well as eerste) exhibits adjectival behavior in that it can be preceded by the intensifying prefix aller-, which can also be found with the superlative form of scalable adjectives such as mooibeautiful; cf. allermooist(e).

A potential problem in assigning adjectival status to eerste/laatste, however, is that the schwa in the ordinal suffix -ste/de does not seem to be an attributive ending, as evidenced by the fact that it must also be realized in indefinite noun phrases with a neuter head noun; cf. Booij (2010:205). This also applies to the schwa found in allereerste and allerlaatste; cf. een allerdroevigst(*e) bericht.

For completeness, we should note that (aller)eerst and (aller)laatst without schwa is possible (and in fact more common than the form with schwa) when these verbs are used in an adverbial function; cf. (158). The use of het with these forms again suggests that we are dealing with superlatives, and thus supports the earlier suggestion that laatste and eerste are adjectives.

This subsection discusses the semantics of ordinal numerals. When an ordinal is used in prenominal position, the noun phrase typically refers to an entity in an array, i.e. an ordered set of entities. When the ordinal is preceded by a cardinal, the phrase functions as a fraction.

Section 20.1.1.4 has argued that cardinal numerals are generated in the specifier position of NumP in (166a), which explains why they follow the determiners but precede the nominal head and its attributive modifiers in (166b).

The fact established in subsection II that ordinals are used to identify the intended referent of the noun phrase suggests that they are generated as part of the NP, just like the attributively used modifiers fraaie in (166b); cf. (167a&b).

The examples in (168) show that ordinal numerals and attributively used adjectives can co-occur. The noun phrase de derde ongetekende cheque can express two different meanings depending on its intonation; if it is pronounced as a single intonational phrase, it is claimed that the check in question is the third unsigned one; if the ordinal and the adjective are separated by an intonation break, the check in question can be the only unsigned one. The two cases differ syntactically in that in the second case the order of the attributive adjective and the ordinal can be reversed; example (168b'), which can be pronounced either with or without an intonation break, is more or less synonymous with (168b), but not with (168a).

The fact that the two orders in the (b)-examples are both acceptable supports the claim that ordinals have a similar syntactic function as attributively used adjectives. When ordinals are in the NP-part of the nominal phrase, we expect them to follow the cardinal numerals. This is not easy to establish, since ordinal and cardinal numerals are usually in complementary distribution. Of course, this does not hold in cases where the ordinal and the noun constitute a lexical unit: the fact that the cardinal twee precedes eerste ministers in (169) is not revealing, since the latter should be analyzed as a (plural) noun.

A potential problem for the claim that ordinals are NP-internal is example (170a). In this case, however, the two numerals seem to form a complex modifier that is used to pick out the first/last two candidates in an ordered set; the ordinal simply functions as a premodifier of the cardinal numeral, which is not unexpected given the conclusion in Section 20.1.1.1 that cardinals are nominal in nature. What is more surprising is that this option is more or less limited to eerste and laatste; (170b) shows that using an ordinal such as derdethird seems to lead to a degraded result (although such cases are not uncommon on the internet).

Cases of the kind in (171a) are normally used to refer to specific dates in the year. Such date expressions are peculiar in that they include the definite article in the absence of a non-neuter noun to license it; names of months do not license the article at all (cf. *de februari), and we have seen that ordinal numerals are most likely adjectival in nature. The problem can be solved by assuming that the construction involves a silent (phonetically empty) noun dag day, as in (171b), which must then of course be non-neuter, just like its overt counterpart dag. We will ignore the silent preposition van for the moment, but return to it shortly.

De Belder (2007) also argues for the analysis in (171b) for date expressions, because the ordinal clearly does not modify the noun februari in (171a); on the assumption that it does modify the silent noun dag, we can compute the meaning of this example in the same compositional manner as in (172a) with the overt noun dag.

Furthermore, there is a restriction on the value of the ordinal, which ranges from 1 to 31 depending on the month in question; de dertigste februarithe thirtieth of February is marked for the same reason as de dertigste dag van februari: it simply does not have a proper referent in everyday use, which also follows if we assign similar syntactic representations to the two examples. The free alternation between examples like (171a) and (172a) is also found in the examples in (173).

However, a striking difference between (171a) and the examples in (173) with silent dag is that van may (or rather: must) remain silent in the former case, but not in the latter. The fact that van must also be overt in date expressions such as de derde dag van de maand februari suggests that the phonetic realization of van depends on the overt realization of de(ze) maand. If so, the representation of example (171a), repeated here as (174a), may be even more complex than suggested in (171b); cf. (174a). The (b) and (c)-examples in (174) are added to show that all the assumed silent material can be realized overtly (although this is not common in actual speech).

This subsection has suggested that the use of silent grammatical nouns is possible not only with cardinal numerals, but also with ordinal numerals. That this occurs in date expressions is not surprising, since the nouns in such constructions meet the semantic criterion that they denote salient cognitive entities with little additional descriptive content; cf. Section 20.1.1.6, sub IIIC2.