Primero/primer
I am kind of confused by the use of "first" and "thirth" in Spanish. Why ? - would you ask.
(Of course, in Spanish as in English, adjectives often can be used as nouns, so el primero is "the first one.
Here the primero is in femenine form...? and here we have masculine rule
Note also that when primero and tercero precede a singular masculine noun, the final -o is dropped: el primer rey ("the first king"), el tercer trimestre ("the third trimester").
Can you explain it , please?
4 Answers
(Of course, in Spanish as in English, adjectives often can be used as nouns, so el primero is "the first one.
Here the primero is in femenine form...? and here we have masculine rule
Note also that when primero and tercero precede a singular masculine noun, the final -o is dropped: el primer rey ("the first king"), el tercer trimestre ("the third trimester").
The first part you said was feminine. It is not. It is masculine. It is just being used as a noun. It is referring to something that was masculine. For example: Waiter: ¿Quiere el bizcocho de chocolate, el flan, o el helado? Customer: Me encantan las tres, pero póngame el primero.
TRANSLATION Waiter: Would you like chocolate cake, flan, or ice cream? Customer: I love all three, but give me the first one.
Which "one" is he referring to? The first dessert, or the first thing listed. However, notice the customer simply said "póngame el primero" instead of "póngame el primer postre que me dijo". When you don´t explicitly say the noun you are referring to (in this case, the noun is postre, or dessert) then you put the "o" at the end (o for masculine, a for feminine). If you DO say the noun, then "primer" becomes an adjective, describing the noun. In the sentence "póngame el primer postre que me dijo," the "o" from "primero" is gone because "primer" is an adjective in this case. Noun: Postre Adjective: Primer He is giving me the dessert. What dessert? The first dessert.
When the "O" is present at the end of "primero", then it becomes a noun that means "the first one/thing".
All of the above also works for tercer (third).
Now here is how the feminine works: It doesn´t change when it is an adjective or a noun. It stays the same. Here is a feminine example:
Woman: ¿En cuál oficina trabajas? Man: En la tercera.
TRANSLATION Woman: Which office do you work in?/ In which office do you work? Man: In the third one.
What is the man referring to when he says "the third one?" He is referring to the office. He works in the third office. Since office is feminine (oficina) it is "tercera" to mean "the third one (office)"
If he were to answer "I work in the third office" he would say "Trabajo en la tercera oficina." In this case, tercera remains the same, with an A at the end, because it is feminine. The A will always stay!
Once again,a cofushion:
Soy el primero de la clase. Es el primer hombre que pisó la luna.
In the first sentece is primero but after it goes femenine noun? I guess it's because primero is reffering for the person and not the "clase"
In the second senteces primer refers to hombre so the "o" drops?
If you click here, you will find even more explanations.
The grammatical name for these numbers (first, second, third) are "ordinal numbers" versus "cardinal numbers" (one, two, three).
Here is a fairly good discussion of the topic.
