What is the best question for " it is the 5th meeting&q

meaning (consept) is universal. It means that whatever is said in one language can be said in another but by the very diffrent form of that language (another language). As you know English uses several types of questions to gain information i.e . WH QUESTION, YES/NO QUESTION ,TAG QUESTION AND.... . I want to know (help me) what is the best type of above -mentioned questions to ask a question about the order of somthing? and if possible give an example in english-

In farsi(Persian) we have a word " CHANDOMIN" to ask a question about the order of something . Do we have somthing like this in english?
thank you very much.

Same problem in French : we have no way of saying that except saying "c'est le combientième ?" (combien (how many) + -ième (-th) but it is a neologism and it is familiar ..

I don't understand what you want, and I'm sure others don't understand either. Otherwise, they'd help. Could you explain all that in a different way?

He wants to know how to ask what number meeting it is in English. That is, what is the number of the meeting in the order of meetings. This is a difficult thing to say in English... I would probably say "What number meeting is it?" in order to elicit the answer, "It's the 5th meeting."

How about one of the following:

Which meeting is it chronologically? (or sequentially?)
Which ordinal meeting is it?

I think the first one is good, bever, but I don't think the second one would be understandable to most people.

>>I don't understand what you want, and I'm sure others don't understand either<<

Why do you make the assumption that others don’t understand, do you see your self as a reference or what?

Actually, "which ordinal meeting is it" WOULD get you a blank stare from most people.

Navid-Iran, I don't think there is any one term in English that indicates that you want to know the order of something. Usually we would have to say something like "Which meeting is this? The fourth or the fifth?" or "How many meetings have we had before this one?" to clearly get our point across.

Your phrasing is kind of weird. Are you trying to find out when an event in the midst of several events takes place? Like you have five meetings (appointments) to get to and you want to know when a particular one takes place? Assuming context is established, you could just ask, when is it? Or if it isn't you'd just ask, when do I have to get to [whatever] meeting, or when is the 3rd meeting?

<<Why do you make the assumption that others don’t understand, do you see your self as a reference or what?>>

I just thought others didn't understand because it'd been long time without an answer. No, I don't see myself as a reference, there's no such thing.

<<He wants to know how to ask what number meeting it is in English. That is, what is the number of the meeting in the order of meetings.>>

Now I understand. And I think you're right in saying that it's a bit difficult to express that in English. I reckon the ones proposed by Uriel sound quite natural and accurate. "Which meeting is this? the fourth or the fifth?"

In Spanish, We have a fair few of expressions that can be used in this situation. That includes a literal translation of the one that Uriel mentioned, which in fact sounds quite cool and native-like in Spanish.

Pete

ok - all the answers were satisfactory. this is what theorists refer to as the " gramatical gap" in translation. but I want u to ask your teacher or professor to find a natural form . I mean a fixed form of questioning which is used commonly by all native speakers of English.

thank u bever. it was a good answer but I want to know if it is sensible for the native speakeres or not?

thank u pate . I think it is my fault that you didnt underestand what I wanted.

thank u guest . your right. the first type sounds more natural.


thank u juan.

thank u uriel.

Adapting one of bever's:

Chronologically speaking, which meeting is this?

Not perfect though. What if there is one day between meeting one and two, two days between meeting two and three, one day between meeting three and four, and 60 years between meeting four and five! Therefore:

Sequentially speaking, which meeting is this?

So, following on with the above:

Amongst other things, data on the order of the meetings does not provide one with information on the chronological distribution of the meetings.

Ordinally categorize this meeting please?

1) "Where does this come in the sequence of meetings?"

It's a bit of a mouth-full but this is the best I can come up with. Though I like Uriel's

2A) "How many meetings have we had before this one?"

However you'd only say this at the time of the meeting for other times you'd have to change the grammar:

2B) "How many meetings had we had before this one?" after the meeting;

2C) "How many meetings will we have before this one?" before any of the meetings &

2D) "How many meetings will we have had before this one?" before this meeting but after the first meeting.

Note that you could use 2D anytime before this meeting but as it has a more complex grammatical structure we'd normally prefer 2C before any of the meetings have started.

Of course, there are other situations to consider. For example, suppose these are an annual set of meetings then you might ask the following.

2E) "How many meetings do we have before this one?"

I don't like the following.

3A) "Chronologically speaking, which meeting is this?"

Nor do I like this.

3B) "Which meeting is it chronologically?"

Talk chronology & you're talking time so you should expect no more information from this than you get asking the following.

3C) "When is the meeting?"

Which (i.e. 3C) isn't so bad a way of asking if from this you can figure out where in the sequence of meeting this one falls. Indeed if you can figure this out, I'd say that this (3C) would be the question most of us would ask.

I don't mean to seem to be picking on Geoff but all the other bad ideas seem to have been shot down so I'll have a stab at this one.

3C) "Ordinally categorize this meeting please?"

Of course, there should not be a question mark there as it is a request not a question. (Just trying to be helpful.) I'm not sure that "categorise" is the word I'd use. I'd rather use "place" ... that is if I were going to use such an expression. No, accurate though it may be this kind of phrasing will get you blank stares from most people too.

What we really need is a word meaning "chandomin". How about "whichth"?

4) "Whichth meeting is this?"

The main problem with this is that "whichth" is a word I made up ... it might be understood though.