Cardinal or ordinal number for the name of the school

Question

The offcial name of the school up to this day has been: Tallinn School No 21. Does it sound correct and formal Br Eng?

Now it has been proposed that it should be Tallinn 21st School. Is there a difference? For us it sounds wrong because the ordinal number refers to ranking or order, doesn’t it?

David Robinson · Answer

There is no one right answer. When translating we usually try to copy the original. I have never heard of an ordinal being used in this context in a translation from any language.

But if you did want to use an ordinal, 21st Tallinn School is the standard English grammar since we mean the 21st of all the Tallinn schools not the Tallinn school amongst all the 21st schools.

This is what we see when we do use ordinals in this sort of situation, e.g. for military units.

Cardinal or ordinal number for the name of the school

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