Partitive adjectives
The adjectives partitive adjectives are pointing a fraction or part of the noun. Examples are a half , a third , a quarter . They are always placed before the noun and agree with it in number and gender: “ half orange”, “ two thirds of cheese”. Partitive adjectives with examples
They are also known as dividing adjectives, and are part of the numeral adjectives together with the multiples, cardinal and ordinal. When partitive adjectives express fractions greater than ten, the ending used (the suffix) is ava / th (twelfth = twelve parts / twentieth = twenty parts).
In Spanish, the most used are fractions less than ten (half, third, fourth) and those ending with the suffix –th : hundredth, thousandth (100 parts and 1,000 parts, respectively).
Like the rest of the adjectives, the partitives also modify and determine the noun.
Examples of partitive adjectives
Since they express fractions, they can be written in numbers. We include the following list so that you can recognize both the numerical and the written expression.
½ a half | 1/14 a fourteenth | 1/26 one twenty-sixth | 1/90 one ninety, ninetieth |
1/3 one third | 1/15 a fifteenth | 1/27 a twenty-seventh | 1/100 a cent, hundredth / o |
¼ a quarter | 1/16 one sixteenth | 1/28 a twenty-eighth | 1/200 one two hundredth |
1/5 a fifth | 1/17 a seventeenth | 1/29 a twenty-nine | 1/300 one three hundredth |
1/6 a sixth | 1/18 an eighteenth | 1/30 one thirtieth, thirtieth | 1/400 one four hundredth |
1/7 a seventh | 1/19 a nineteenth | 2/30 two thirties | 1 / 10,000 one ten thousandth |
1/8 an eighth | 1/20 a twentieth or twentieth | 1/40 one fortieth, fortieth | 1 / 100,000 one hundred thousandth |
1/9 a ninth | 1/21 a twenty-one | 2/40 two forties | 1 / 1,000,000 one millionth |
1/10 a tenth | 1/22 a twenty-second | 1/50 a fiftieth | 1 / 10,000,000 one ten millionth |
1/11 an eleventh or eleventh | 1/23 one twenty-third | 1/60 one sixtieth, sixtieth | 1 / 100,000,000 one hundred millionth |
1/12 a twelfth or a twelfth | 1/24 a twenty-fourth | 1/70 one seventy, seventieth | 1 / 1,000,000,000 one billionth |
1/13 a thirteenth | 1/25 a twenty-fifth | 1/80 one eighth, eightieth | 1 / 1,000,000,000,000 one billionth |
As you can see, partitive adjectives express a fraction of the whole. They are widely used in mathematical language, and also serve to understand cooking recipes, when it is asked to mix ½ teaspoon of sweet paprika and ¼ cup of rice, for example.
Examples of sentences
- I drank half a liter of juice by myself .
- A centimeter is one hundredth of a meter.
- A millimeter is one thousandth of a meter.
- Two thirds of the planet is water.
- Please give me half a portion of potatoes and half a sandwich.
- Of what is collected, a tenth part will be to help immigrants.
- You got a fifth of the cake.
- In the statistics, we saw that a twenty-second of the population is under the age of 20.
- One second is one- sixtieth of an hour.
- Beat two eggs, half a cup of sugar and three quarters of pastry flour.
- How much does the candy cost? It costs three cents .
- If you had a millionth of judgment, you would not be in this situation.
- We will buy everything for the Christmas holidays and each one will put a fifth of what it cost.
- That painting is not worth a penny .
- How long is a nanosecond? It’s easy: one billionth of a second.
- Bertolt Brecht is the author of The Three Penny Opera .
- In the fourteenth century, a pandemic occurred, the most devastating yet; it was called the Black Death and is said to have wiped out between one thirtieth and one sixtieth of the European population.
- My uncle died and left an inheritance: the sixth part was distributed among his nephews.
- The punch recipe is made with two thirds of milk and cream.
- With the last forest fire, an eighth of the forest was burned .
- Women are half the world’s population.
- 10% of something equals one tenth . Partitive adjectives with examples
- With a hundredth of Bill Gates’s fortune, we could work miracles.
- In the United States, one- thirtieth of young people believe in flat Earth.
- About one sixtieth of the world’s population is monotheistic.
- In a millisecond , anything can happen.