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I was listening a song. The lines are,
One, my last album flopped
Two, it wasn't my time
Three, my f***in' mama's selling my pajamas online
The use of One, two three is quite new to me. I have heard phrases like,
First, I did this. Second I went there.
Firstly I want money, and secondly peace.
My question is when to use One-Two-Three and when to use First-Second-Third and when to use Firstly-Secondly-Thirdly?
Ordinals are used to describe something's order in a sequence. These are the "first, second, third" words you have mentioned. However, numbers by themselves can be used to denote points on a list.
Therefore, we should use ordinals when describing things to do in sequence:
First, we need to till the soil. Second, we'll plant the flower seeds. After that, it's just a matter of waiting.
On the other hand, if someone has multiple, separate points to address, they might verbally number them for emphasis:
Speaker A: What's wrong with you?
Speaker B: Well, for one, my feet are killing me after standing around all day in these heels. Two, I'm starting to get a migrane. Three, I just found out the train is out of service today so I'll have to pay for a ride home.
Ordinals can be used in the second example, too, but it implies that the points are listed in order of most important to least important. Adding -ly to the end just turns the ordinal into its adverb form.
They are interchangeable. Use whichever you are accustomed to, or whichever sounds good to you at the time. In addition, you can count using letters of the alphabet.
