frame this question

[rich_m]

Question: Speaking as if you were me talking to someone else about you, tell me which child you were.

Does'nt this question have more than one unrelated answers?

[Calum]

Yay Jeopardy

[AR]

"Which oldest is he?"
This may not be "proper" English, but it's "valid".

[NotTheCHEAT]

Didn't he say the question has to be a 'yes' or 'no' answer?

You aren't allowed to use any numbers ("are you the third child in your family" is not allowed) and the question may only be a yes-or-no question ("which child are you?" is not allowed).

To figure out the position he is, you have to ask him which position he is (a non-yes-or-no question) or you have to iterate through each position, asking for each one (which is not allowed, as he said):

Are you the first?

Are you the second?

Are you the third?

...

However, as far as I can tell this one is OK:

Did your mother have a child, then another child, before she had you?

This seems perfectly legal, follows the rules, and it works- though if the child is a little kid, they might not understand the question

It's the "Are you the third child" question, but reworded to fit the rules.

Sometimes, when dealing with logic problems like this (especially rhetorical situations that never occur in real life) you have to think outside the bochs... er, box. I guess too much late-night OS deving has finally caught up to me ;D

[AR]

without asking a logic question i.e the 'yes' 'no' type or having the word 'third' or any other position in your question.

keyword "without", meaning NOT a "logic" (ie. yes/no) question.

[CESS.tk]

What rich_m really wants to know (as far as I can tell) is how to ask for a rank number in English. In Dutch, for example, you can use the word "hoeveelste". In English however, you can't say "the how-manyth" and as far as I know, there just isn't an interrogative pronoun for it. So I'm afraid you're forced to come up with other ways of getting the required information. You could ask "which pope was he?" or "which child is he?", but those are a bit vague and can be misinterpreted. If you want a fail-safe question, you're going to have to go for something like "how many popes came before St.-Clement?" and "how many kids did she give birth to before him?".

If a native speaker knows of a better way, please do tell. I was quite stumped that I couldn't think of a proper way to ask for "the how-manyth" in the language that (probably) has the most words of any language.

[rich_m]

What rich_m really wants to know (as far as I can tell) is how to ask for a rank number in English. In Dutch, for example, you can use the word "hoeveelste". In English however, you can't say "the how-manyth" and as far as I know, there just isn't an interrogative pronoun for it.

Exactly

[Candy]

In Dutch, for example, you can use the word "hoeveelste".

Why do most people on this board seem to know English, a bit of dutch and a bit of swedish? I thought most people were from other places around the world?

[Eero Ränik]

There are a lot of Dutchies here. Besides, StrangeQuark is one, too. English is an easy, universal language, Dutch is even easier, and an interesting one, too, and Swedish... well, actually I wouldn't have an explanation for it.

[rich_m]

I thought most people were from other places around the world?

I am.