First time visiting a city, second Chinese friend, third day of a trip — Mandarin handles all of these with a single prefix: 第 (dì). Place it before a number and that number becomes an ordinal, the equivalent of adding "-th" in English.
The core structure is 第 + Number (+ MW + Noun). The example you'll practice is:
这是我第一次来中国 (zhè shì wǒ dì yī cì lái Zhōngguó) — "This is my first time coming to China."
Here 第 (dì) sits before 一 (yī, "one") to form 第一次 (dì yī cì, "first time"), where 次 (cì) is the measure word for occurrences. Swap in other numbers and nouns and you get 第二个朋友 (dì èr ge péngyǒu, "second friend"), 第三天 (dì sān tiān, "third day"), and so on.
This is a live voice conversation lesson — you speak out loud with AI teacher Mei Lin, who corrects your grammar and pronunciation in the flow of talk and adapts to your level. The lesson targets this one grammar point and takes about 10 minutes. You'll answer Mei Lin's questions about your own life using 第 (dì), describing real firsts, seconds, and thirds as if chatting with a friend.
It's part of a broader set of HSK 2 lessons that each focus on a single pattern. If you want to keep practicing, try the lesson on 开始 (kāishǐ) — Starting an Action or the one on 可以 (kěyǐ) — Asking Permission.
The first lesson is free, so you can start talking right away. To reinforce the characters offline, you can also generate printable handwriting worksheets covering HSK 1–3 vocabulary.
第 (dì) is a prefix placed before a number to turn it into an ordinal — first, second, third, and so on. In the lesson example 这是我第一次来中国 (zhè shì wǒ dì yī cì lái Zhōngguó), 第 turns 一 into 第一次, meaning "first time." Without 第, the number would just mean "one."
You talk out loud with AI teacher Mei Lin in a roughly 10-minute voice conversation. She asks you about your own experiences — your first trip, your second friend, your third day somewhere — and you respond using 第 (dì) in real sentences. She corrects pronunciation and grammar as you go.
The pattern is 第 + Number (+ MW + Noun), so knowing a few common measure words like 次 (cì) for occurrences helps. Mei Lin adapts to your level, so if you're unsure which measure word to use, she'll guide you through it in conversation.