this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2025
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Ok, Lemmy, let's play a game!

Post how many languages in which you can count to ten, including your native language. If you like, provide which languages. I'm going to make a guess; after you've replied, come back and open the spoiler. If I'm right: upvote; if I'm wrong: downvote!

My guess, and my answer...My guess is that it's more than the number of languages you speak, read, and/or write.

Do you feel cheated because I didn't pick a number? Vote how you want to, or don't vote! I'm just interested in the count.

I can count to ten in five languages, but I only speak two. I can read a third, and I once was able to converse in a fourth, but have long since lost that skill. I know only some pick-up/borrow words from the 5th, including counting to 10.

  1. My native language is English
  2. I lived in Germany for a couple of years; because I never took classes, I can't write in German, but I spoke fluently by the time I left.
  3. I studied French in college for three years; I can read French, but I've yet to meet a French person who can understand what I'm trying to say, and I have a hard time comprehending it.
  4. I taught myself Esperanto a couple of decades ago, and used to hang out in Esperanto chat rooms. I haven't kept up.
  5. I can count to ten in Japanese because I took Aikido classes for a decade or so, and my instructor counted out loud in Japanese, and the various movements are numbered.

I can almost count to ten in Spanish, because I grew up in mid-California and there was a lot of Spanish thrown around. But French interferes, and I start in Spanish and find myself switching to French in the middle, so I'm not sure I could really do it.

Bonus question: do you ever do your counting in a non-native language, just to make it more interesting?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Norwegian
English
Swedish
Danish
German
Spanish
Korean
Japanese
Chinese
Arabic

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Russian as native
English as expected
Danish as I'm integrating
Korean as I was doing Taekwondo (can't say much more actually)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I speak three languages and I can count in ten.

Not a hard guess, to be honest, lots of people pick up numbers from popular culture (Spanish songs are big on counting, but weirdly, German ones as well). And if you study an Eastern martial art, chances are you'll learn to count to ten in the corresponding language from your instructor.

Or I don't know, maybe my brain is weird and I'm collecting numbers, that's a non-zero possibility.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)
  1. English (native), Welsh, French, Spanish, German, and binary if I use my fingers 🙌

EDIT:Bugger, it's 5. I can't remember 6 and 10 in German 🙈

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

I can count to ten in seven languages. Not as many as some of the others here, I suppose?

Yes, I sometimes count in one of my target languages.

Languages in which I can count one to ten, along with the numbers (in words)

  • Tagalog/Filipino (native): isa, dalawa, tatlo, apat, lima, anim, pito, walo, siyam, sampu
  • English (school): one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten
  • Cebuano (heritage speaker): usa, duha, tulo, upat, lima, unom, pito, walo, siyam, napulo
  • French (school): un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix
  • Japanese (self-study): ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyuu, juu
  • Esperanto (self-study): unu, du, tri, kvar, kvin, ses, sep, ok, naŭ, dek
  • Spanish (quirk of native language): uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco, sais, siete, ocho, nueve, diez
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

To 10? English and Spanish.

If we can drop the requirement to 5 I can add Turkish.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

3.8

I can’t remember the German words for 8 and 9

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Three: English, Welsh, German.

I used to be able to do French, Italian and Japanese, but I've managed to forget everything above about five.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

That's my problem. I live in the US, and there's essentially no opportunity to verbally practice anything. The only options, really, would be Hindi or Spanish, and where I live there's a significant Somali immigrant community, but if you don't use it, you lose it!

My girlfriend in HS had a German mother and a Japanese father. Her mother left Germany when she was 16. After I came back from my extended stay in Germany, speaking fluid German, I visited her parents, and tried to have a conversation with her mother in German. After a few minutes, she said - a little sadly - that she just didn't remember German anymore because it had been so long since she'd spoken it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Just 3; English, Spanish and Japanese.

1-10 was actually like the first or second lesson I had in Japanese, along with phrases related to telling time or paying for things.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

English, French, maybe German, binary and hexadecimal

Although hexadecimal might be considered cheating

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Points for creativity!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Lol do we count swedish, norweigan and danish as different languages? Btw other languages are my two native ones: hungarian and english, and then i know spanish because i had it in highschool and i lived 4 months there(cant really speak it anymore sadly) and then croatian because i had one if my friends teach it to me. I used to know some japanese but i also forgot that so without that the total is 5 i guess.

Bonus answer: as for everyday counting i do it either in hungarian or english so no i dont count in my non-native languages. My brain gets fried if i try to do maths for example in swedish. If i do english maths its no problem but i still prefer hungarian when i do large calculations without any paper.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Une, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix

Uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinqo, seiz, siete, ocho, neuve, diez

Yï, èr, sän, sì, wû, liù, qï, bä, jîu, shí

Yain, tain, eddero, peddero, pots, later, tater, ovvero, covvero, dits

So... 5. Far fewer than I can toast in.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Drinking is clearly more important.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

...3? English, Spanish and German.

Though as I say this I am struggling to remember how to say 10 Spanish (I failed Spanish 3 times in highschool).

So let's calling it 2.9 lol

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier, Fünf, Sechs, Sieben, Acht, Neun, Zehn (German, Native)

One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten (English, know this pretty well)

Un, Deux, Trois, Quatre, Cinq, Six, Sept, Huit, Neuf, Dix (French, least sure about this one)

いち、に、さん、よん、ご、ろく、なな、はち、きゅう、じゅう (日本語, I love it but it's still hard)

一、二、三、四、後、六、七、八、九、十 (also 日本語 but with kanji)

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (4 children)

English (school/friends): one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten

German (school): eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs (hehe sex), sieben, acht, neun, zehn

Marathi (native): Ek, don, teen, char, pach, saha, saat, aath, naoo, daha

Hindi (friends/school): Ek, do, teen, char, panch, cchah, saat, aath, naww, thus

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Cool idea. Got a few where I might know just enough to pass this.

attempts collapsedOne two three four five six seven eight nine ten

Ett två tre fyra fem sex sju åtta nio tio

Ein zwei drei vier fünf sechs sieben acht neun zehn

Yksi kaksi kolme neljä viisi kuusi seitsemän kahdeksan yhdeksän kymmenen

Üks kaks kolm neli viis kuus seitse kaheksa üheksa kümme

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I never remember German 9 and 10 because the song only goes up to 8.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

5: English, German, French, Spanish, and Japanese.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

English, Cantonese, Mandarin, German, Japanese

I'm native at the first two, fluent in Mandarin, currently learning German, and Japanese I learned by watching Puyo Puyo gameplay.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

English, Maori, Japanese, Korean, Spanish

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

I can count to ten in more language than I am able to speak (I just love learning stuff):

Can count above ten:
German (native), English, Norwegian, Romanian, Russian, Japanese

Can count only up to ten:
French, Polish, Mandarin

I am learning Romanian at the moment, those are 0-10: zero,
unu/ una,
doi/ două,
trei,
patru,
cinci,
șase,
șapte,
opt,
nouă,
zece

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Well if you can count to ten in mandarin, you can count to 100.

It's literally 5 10 2, 5 10 3 for 52, 53 etc.

Add one more word for hundreds, one more for thousands.

After that it gets tough cause numbers beyond thousands are split by packs of 10 thousands, not hundred thousands like most western world (I guess).

Similar to the lakh in Indian

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

German, English, French and Upper Sorabian

Bonus: nope, but I sometimes try counting in Binary with my fingers.

But damn there are some smart people here!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

English Spanish and Japanese

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

4: English, Spanish, French, and Japanese Bonus: Yes

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago
  1. The same 3 I knew back in kindergarten. But I totally forgot one of them for a long while, which is the one I choose to use when I started kindergarten and resulted in my mom getting a call because I supposedly didn't know how to count.

Not fluent in either of the two non-native languages. My peak was probably 5, but two of which were only for a couple years max and very similar.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

English, German and French. I don't speak German or French but I am still learning German (my school forced me to learn French from when I was 7 to when I was 14, but it was taught to poorly to me until I was 13 that I dropped it as soon as I could and the only things I remember are the numbers)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Eight: English, German, French, Spanish, Latin, Russian, Japanese, ASL.

Bonus question: do you ever do your counting in a non-native language, just to make it more interesting?

Russian occasionally. ASL when I'm counting how many seconds the cat has to stay quiet before I give her a treat.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

English, French, Spanish, Esperanto

As a bonus: binary, hexadecimal, octal (really most bases but I can only go past that up to hexatrigesimal without looking up the symbols) Roman numerals, tally marks

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

I like learning languages so with that in mind: German, Dutch, French, Swedish, Estonian, Russian, Afrikaans, Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Irish and Latin. I don't speak all of them thought.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

For this question exactly I can claim 6, but beyond counting to 10 I know very little in most of these.

  • English (native language)
  • Spanish (took a couple years in high school)
  • French (took one class in middle school)
  • Japanese (took a semester in college)
  • Malayalam (parents' native language)
  • Hindi (popular old song with Madhuri Dixit where the chorus counts up to 13, lol)
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Four. English, Chinese, Japanese, German.

Among these German is the only one where I'm not confident in my language capacities... So I almost beat OP in the bet :P I just happened to have learned German up until ~A2 for career reasons but dropped it since my plans changed. Other three I'm all very fluent in. I am also learning French but ironically I only know 1/2/3 because I'm a complete newbie...

I spent the last 10 years in the US so my internal monolog is a bit messed up... I primarily count in English which is not my native language. If it is a long number I'll use Chinese since it is more efficient (one syllable each for 0-10)

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

English, French, Spanish, Inuktituk

I grew up in Labrador, where they teach Inuktituk in school. I also know a little French because I'm Canadian and a little Spainish because of American educational television.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Three. Spanish, Korean, and English.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

4:

  • English (native)
  • Spanish (school)
  • French (school)
  • Korean (Taekwondo)

Hopefully next week I'll add Polish--I'm on day 3 of learning it in an app.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

English, Swedish, French, Hebrew, Latin

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

English, German, Spanish, Polish, French

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