Look at these names of kings, queens, popes:
Le pape Benoît seize a démissionné.The pope Benedict the sixteenth resigned.
Elisabeth deux est la reine d'Angleterre.Elisabeth the second is queen of England.
Louis quatorze était surnommé Le Roi Soleil.Louis the fourteenth's nickname was The Sun King.
Notice that cardinal numbers (deux, trois, quatre...) are used for royalty where ordinals (second, third, fourth...) are used in English, except for 1st = Ier / premier:
François Ier protégea Léonard de Vinci.François I protected Leonardo Da Vinci. You use tiers (masculine) or tierce (feminine) instead of troisième when expressing a fraction, a portion of something (= one third of), as opposed to a rank or an order (= third out of).
Nous devons utiliser une tierce personne comme témoin.We must use a third party as a witness.
Il y a beaucoup de pauvreté dans le Tiers-Monde.There is a lot of poverty in Third World countries.
J'ai bu un tiers de la bouteille.I drank a third of the bottle.
versus
Je suis arrivé troisième du marathon.I came third in the marathon.
Mon troisième enfant est né en septembre.My third child was born in September.
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