Learn English – Can we use one-two instead of first-second

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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?

Best Answer

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.