I don't disagree with anything JulianStuart writes, but those infrequent situations that demand such a question deserve being addressed.
To wit, I feel compelled to make a little personal confession to give a background to my suggestion of "what number ____ etc."
I am the youngest of 15 children. When you grow up in a family like that, questions regarding ordinal ranking are NOT infrequent. I was asked "What number are you?" literally hundreds of times. What's interesting now, looking back, is that not only do I not recall anyone having ever phrased the question any other way, but I don't recall anyone having had to scramble for the words. "What number are you?" seemed to flow automatically from the tongues of one and all, young or old, friend or foe.
No doubt this is why I considered "What number President was Bill Clinton" a no-brainer.
And by the way, in the hope of expanding beyond talk of US Presidents, I found this on a site called liverpoolquiz.org.uk:
What number Louis was executed in the French Revolution?
To wit, I feel compelled to make a little personal confession to give a background to my suggestion of "what number ____ etc."
I am the youngest of 15 children. When you grow up in a family like that, questions regarding ordinal ranking are NOT infrequent. I was asked "What number are you?" literally hundreds of times. What's interesting now, looking back, is that not only do I not recall anyone having ever phrased the question any other way, but I don't recall anyone having had to scramble for the words. "What number are you?" seemed to flow automatically from the tongues of one and all, young or old, friend or foe.
No doubt this is why I considered "What number President was Bill Clinton" a no-brainer.
And by the way, in the hope of expanding beyond talk of US Presidents, I found this on a site called liverpoolquiz.org.uk:
What number Louis was executed in the French Revolution?
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