Do people not study grammar in American schools? I thought all kids learn the distinction between cardinal (one, two, three) and ordinal (first, second, third) numbers.
At the age that cardinal and ordinal numbers are taught, kids simply don't remember "cardinal" and "ordinal", they remember "one, two, three" and "first, second, third".
99% of the instances I've seen "ordinal" outside of this thread has been in code/documentation. It is not a common word in everyday language.
The English grammar that Americans study in school is likely somewhat different than the English grammar that is taught outside of America as the goal of the latter is likely focused on helping students map their native language onto English. I would agree that `ordinal` is uncommon word for many Americans, but it wouldn't at all surprise me if there were languages where the equivalent word was far more common, and therefore its use and translation was a part of standard English as a second language curriculum.
> The English grammar that Americans study in school is likely somewhat different than the English grammar that is taught outside of America as the goal of the latter is likely focused on helping students map their native language onto English
English is spoken as a native language in many countries outside of America.
