Problem in formulating question?

Question

Consider this scenario..*.Sam ate 4 cookies*. Now if someone asks Sam *How many you had*, then Sam will reply 4. But how should the question be formed so that the answer Sam gives will be 4th instead of 4?

Answer 1

The answer would never be fourth, unless someone were to ask "is that your third or fourth cookie?" When you are using first, second, third, fourth, you are talking about the order of something such as the first time I went to Spain, or the second day of the week, or the third floor of a building, or the fourth month in the year. In this case, four is the number of cookies eaten by Sam. We use the number four (4) to respond to questions about how many cookies Sam has eaten.

Answer 2

Eliciting an answer using "4th" requires a very specific type of question. The only question I can think of is: What number cookie did you just have/eat? The answer would be: I just had/ate my 4th cookie.

You could also ask it in the present tense: What number cookie is that? The answer: This is my 4th cookie.