[Grammar] Obama is 44th president of US

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rock-onn

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Obama is 44th president of US.

what is the question form of it? In my mother tongue I could ask the question in just three words. But in English I couldn't.

What is the ordinal of Obama in the chronological list of presidents of US?

The above question is the best I could come with.
 
Obama is the 44th president of the US.

Note that regardless of the number value, you'll need a definite article before it, both in the affirmative and interrogative forms.
 
We are asked this type of question several times a year.

I guess it will float around until English creates an answer for it.
 
Try this (like it's done here):

What number president is Obama? (by Will Cleveland, Mark Alvarez, and Tate Nation)
 
There are many attempts to solve the conundrum, but until one is adopted by the wider speech community, we will always be left without a clear answer. Given that the question comes from non-native speakers, it suggests that native speakers don't see the issue, other than ESL teachers.
 
Try clicking on the link and then on 'Did you mean: how%20 manieth'.
 
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I think everyone is making a big deal out of it. Even I, someone whose native language (unfortunately) is not English, had thought of the "what number president is X?" variant, which I then googled up. English is the RICHEST language on Earth, and it's just a matter of doing a little thinking before you arrive at something that's going to work.
 
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Is there a simple answer in other languages?
 
You can easily ask such a question and answer it in Russian. Honestly, I have never said someting like this before, so I have to side with Tdol that it's not important.
 
Is there a simple answer in other languages?

In Russian we could say

Каким по счёту президентом является Обама [Kakim po schyotu prezidentom yavlyaetsya Obama]?

Каким = what/which
по счёту = in count/by count
президентом = president
является = is
Обама = Obama

Basically, it's like saying

Which president, in order, is Obama?
 
In Chinese, we simply say “奥巴马是第几任美国总统?”

奥巴马 = Obama
= is
第几任 = how manieth
美国总统 = US President

The direct translation is 'Obama is how manieth US President?'
 
Yes.

多少
= how many / how much
第几 = how manieth
 
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