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:
ATTENTION:
Examples and resources
Louis onze était un bon roi.
Louis the eleventh was a good king.
François Ier protégea Léonard de Vinci.
François I protected Leonardo Da Vinci.
Nous devons utiliser une tierce personne comme témoin.
We must use a third party as a witness.
Le pape Benoît seize a démissionné.
The pope Benedict the sixteenth resigned.
Mon troisième enfant est né en septembre.
My third child was born in September.
Louis quatorze était surnommé Le Roi Soleil.
Louis the fourteenth's nickname was The Sun King.
Je suis arrivé troisième du marathon.
I came third in the marathon.
Elisabeth deux est la reine d'Angleterre.
Elisabeth the second is queen of England.
J'ai bu un tiers de la bouteille.
I drank a third of the bottle.
tiers/tierce
Il y a beaucoup de pauvreté dans le Tiers-Monde.
There is a lot of poverty in Third World countries.
Loading your KwizQ&A
Chris
Kwiziq community member
2/02/18
Yes, "la bouteille" is feminine but "un tiers" is masculine. So "un tiers de la bouteille".
-- Chris (not a native speaker).
steven
Kwiziq community member
19/04/18
Gio
Kwiziq community member
3/01/18
"There is a lot of poverty in the Third World." (in Third World countries)
To say "in the Third World." implies theres only one Third World. The way the sentence is structured seems incomplete. You could also say "There is a lot of poverty in the Third World country known as Mozambique"
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
3/01/18
Thanks very much for these remarks :)
In French, it's perfectly correct to use "le Tiers Monde" as a general expression for all under developed countries, but I agree it sounds weird in English.
I've now edited these examples accordingly.
Merci et à bientôt !
Ron
Kwiziq community member
9/10/17
I can certainly understand why it would appear that way; however, in French it is a little different. Here is the explanation from the lesson:
«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:»
Given this explanation, Henry VIII (The Eighth) would become Henry huit.
I hope that you find this useful and that the answer covers you question.
Bonne chance et bonne continuation,
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
15/05/17
"tiers" is masculine and "tierce" is feminine :
"une tierce personne" / "le tiers monde"
I've added a note to the lesson !
Merci beaucoup et à bientôt !
Laura
Kwiziq language super star
12/11/15
No, it's not an error. Ier is the Roman number I (one) followed by er - it's just another way of writing 1er, the abbreviation of premier.
Rebeca
Kwiziq community member
26/04/17
Nigel
Kwiziq community member
16/01/18
Paul
Kwiziq community member
9 March 2018
3 replies
tiers/tierce
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
12 March 2018
12/03/18
Bonjour Paul !
The expression is une tierce personne as in a third party in English. It's usually used in a legal context for example.
I cannot really think of other cases when we use tierce, as tiers is the one you used when expressing a fraction, hence in most cases:
un tiers, deux tiers...
Un tiers du monde -> a third of the world
I hope that's helpful!
Bonne journée !
Paul
Kwiziq community member
9 March 2018
9/03/18
In brief, can you please explain again about "un tier", a masculine (noun) and une tierce, a feminine noun or is it an adjective?
You use tiers (masculine) or tierce (feminine) instead of troisième when expressing a fraction, but une tierce de personne comme un temon can't be a third of a person.
Paul
Kwiziq community member
12 March 2018
12/03/18