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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[–] lukstru@lemmy.world 63 points 1 week ago (4 children)

1. Python

for i in range(11):
    print(i)

2. R

for (i in 0:10) {
  print(i)
}

3. C/C++

#include <iostream>

int main() {
  for (int i = 0; i <= 10; ++i) {
    std::cout << i << std::endl;
  }
  return 0;
}

4. Java

public class CountToTen {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    for (int i = 0; i <= 10; i++) {
      System.out.println(i);
    }
  }
}

5. Lua

for i = 0, 10 do
  print(i)
end

6. Bash (Shell Script)

for i in $(seq 0 10); do
  echo $i
done

7. Batch (Windows Command Script)

@echo off
for /l %%i in (0,1,10) do (
  echo %%i
)

8. Go

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
  for i := 0; i <= 10; i++ {
    fmt.Println(i)
  }
}

9. Rust

fn main() {
  for i in 0..=10 {  // 0..=10 includes 10
    println!("{}", i);
  }
}

10. Zig

const std = @import("std");

pub fn main() !void {
    var i: i32 = 0;
    while (i <= 10) {
        std.debug.print("{}\n", .{i});
        i += 1;
    }
}

11. Scala

for (i <- 0 to 10) {
  println(i)
}

12. Fortran

program count_to_ten
  implicit none
  integer :: i

  do i = 0, 10
    print *, i
  end do

end program count_to_ten

13. Haskell

main :: IO ()
main = mapM_ print [0..10]

14. Julia

for i in 0:10
    println(i)
end
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[–] Old_Jimmy_Twodicks@sh.itjust.works 52 points 1 week ago (4 children)

English:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Spanish:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

French:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

German:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Italian:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Greek:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Mongolian:

᠐ ᠑ ᠒ ᠓ ᠔ ᠕ ᠖ ᠗ ᠘ ᠙ ᠑᠐

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

The accent on the German is rather thick, though.

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[–] benignintervention@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Uno, dos, très, quatro, cinco cinco, ses

[–] vodkasolution@feddit.it 9 points 1 week ago

You know it's kinda hard

[–] KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] vodkasolution@feddit.it 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] sxan@midwest.social 7 points 1 week ago

25 or 6 to 4

[–] sxan@midwest.social 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

... siete, ocho, nueve, des!

Hah! I just needed to get started!

Spelling is probably horrible wrong, but Ima take it. 7! 7 languages, ah, ah, aahhh!

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[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Latin, Kmer.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 3 points 1 week ago (4 children)
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[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

2: English and Japanese. (Took Karate classes as a kid)

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[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Latin, Classical Greek.

That makes 11, I guess.

[–] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

English, French, German is three.

Oh, also Scottish, American English, Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English, er... Canadian English, Irish English, Singaporean English, oh, and lots of other Xian English where X is one of the various African countries or islands of the Caribbean that use English as their official language.

Call it another 27 or so.

And they say maths is a language, so 31 total. What do I win?

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[–] Opinionhaver@feddit.uk 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I had mandatory Swedish at school for over 6 years and I can't even count to ten in that language. Time well spent.

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[–] Burninator05@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

To 10? English and Spanish.

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

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

3.8

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

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 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.

[–] Marty_TF@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

german english latin italian spanish japanese

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[–] ZeroGravitas@lemm.ee 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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[–] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I can count to ten in just four languages, sadly.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Japanese, English, ASL, and Spanish. Those are my four.

I’m trying to get my Japanese back to as good as it was before I came to America-proper; I spent my childhood on an Air Force base and went to a school in rural Japan. Then I learned English, and with it, my Japanese started rotting. Started really trying hard to get decent at it again for the last decade. It comes, but slowly.

I can count to ten in Spanish cause that’s the second-place language out here, and ASL cause doing 20 counts on one hand is stupid useful and I love it.

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[–] megane_kun@lemm.ee 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
[–] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 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.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 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.

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Norwegian
English
Swedish
Danish
German
Spanish
Korean
Japanese
Chinese
Arabic

[–] toofpic@lemmy.world 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)

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 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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English, Maori, Japanese, Korean, Spanish

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 3 points 1 week ago

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

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 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.

[–] zanyllama52@infosec.pub 3 points 1 week ago

Three. Spanish, Korean, and English.

[–] Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com 3 points 1 week ago (2 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.

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[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

English, French, Spanish, Japanese.

French is lapsed, Spanish broken, and Japanese I know only that required for karate class.

My French was conversational, my Spanish was touristy (what time does the bank open? Where's the bathroom? Etc), and my Japanese was never getting better. But I miss the fluidity of thought and I'm sad to have lost ground on my language goals since COVID.

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[–] arudesalad@sh.itjust.works 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)

[–] TerranFenrir@lemmy.ca 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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[–] HatchetHaro@pawb.social 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.

  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.

[–] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 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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[–] ProfessorScience@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

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

[–] DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works 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!

[–] sevon@lemmy.kde.social 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

[–] Nasan@sopuli.xyz 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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[–] Theoriginalthon@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

English, French, maybe German, binary and hexadecimal

Although hexadecimal might be considered cheating

[–] sxan@midwest.social 3 points 1 week ago

Points for creativity!

[–] MrJameGumb@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

English Spanish and Japanese

[–] MoreFPSmorebetter@lemmy.zip 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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[–] Fondots@lemmy.world 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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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.

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