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] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Currently it's only English and Japanese. At one point I looked up how to count to ten in French, but I clearly don't remember it. I can also count to seven in Chinese (pitch probably incorrect) because of a song that starts off counting and stops at seven for whatever reason.

Though if we're counting writing, I'd be obligated to add Chinese because, at the very least, 1-10 in Japanese and Chinese are the same for just the numbers alone.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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 2 days 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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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Four. Sign language, Mandarin + Mandarin hand signs, Spanish, English - and yes, I do use the other languages to entertain myself.

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

Spoken: 3 at best. Counting to 10: 6.

Not just counting, but sometimes I might say a word or a phrase in another language because I find it sounds humorous in the moment. Poor Italian gets ridiculed the most 🤌🤌.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

English, French, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin, probably a few others I'm forgetting, I'm not good with translating numbers into sounds, I'd probably have more on the list if you ask me what languages i can say "it's okay" in, oh yeah i got the itchy knee I can do Japanese too. I think I learned Thai at some point before I gave up on their alphabet.

also counting in different romance languages is lame, show me how many language FAMILIES you can count in. oh shit you got the Bantu! oh yeah I can also do turkish

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Four. English, Hindi, Marathi (native) and Kannada. Sanskrit as well, but it's a dead language, and I can't speak Sanskrit because the grammar is extremely complicated. Had it in school for 3 years. So 5, if you're counting Sanskrit.

I generally count in English, unless I am using another language with my friends (excluding Sanskrit).

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

To 10? English and Spanish.

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Three. Spanish, Korean, and English.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day 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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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days 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 2 days ago (3 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 2 days 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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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I learned how to count to 10 and a few other random bits of Korean in Tae Kwon Do class.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Portuguese, Spanish, French, English, Swedish and Finnish.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

English, Croatian, Polish and German.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Arabic, French, English, Chinese (mandarin), Russian.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

English, German, French, Dutch, Finnish.

With a bit of effort I might get pretty close in Spanish or Latin, but I'd probably make some mistakes, so that doesn't count.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days 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] 4 points 3 days 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] 5 points 3 days 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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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days 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] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

I can count to ten in English (native), Japanese (did Karate for about a decade) and Spanish (took classes in middle and high school).

I can ... read and listen to Spanish and maybe understand at about a 2nd or 3rd grade level... very much out of practice.

I would not say I can speak Japanese or understand it ... basically at all, unless the conversation entirely consists of either counting, or using nouns describing Karate forms, lol.

The first time I dated ... a combination weeabo and owns her own horses, horse girl, who was actually taking Japanese in college to major in it...

She asked me a very grammatically basic question in Japanese, a yes no question...

And I responded 'Osu!'... and then quickly learned that that is not a standard Japanese word for 'yes', that would be 'Hai', and that Osu ... basically only contextually makes sense in the context of a dojo or some other sports/military type setting.

Apparently in proper/normal? Japanese it is a casual greeting amongst martial arts practitioners... but I was literally drilled to say it as an enthusiastic, affirmative response to any command.

EDIT: Also, this will sound insane, but I swear to god this actually happened: Many years after the aforementioned clarification from my at the time gf... I later encountered a man who told me he was ... a yakuza, specifically a yakushi... we chatted for hours, he showed me how one of his fingers had been severely busted at the knuckle.

He explained to me that... there had been a fuckup on his part, but his... direct superior decided to basically accept some of the blame for the fuckup of this guy I met, and struck him with the blunt side of the blade instead of the sharp side... and then exiled him.

Which was why he was in America, and could no longer safely return to Japan.

Anyway, he explained to me that the reason why... most Japanese say 'yon' instead of 'shi' to mean '4' ... is because 'shi' is also the character/sound that... basically means 'death'.

Which then circled around to why he referred to himself as a 'yakushi'.

As he explained it to me, it meant that he had both dealt, and been sparred from death.

... I have no idea if what this guy was saying is actually true, if he actually was a yakuza... but he did tell me these things and seemed very serious about them.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

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

That makes 11, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

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

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

English, French, Spanish, German, Korean, Pig Latin, Oppish, Ubbi Dubbi

So eight, if the last few count.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

wa', cha', wej, loS, vagh, jav, Soch, chorgh, Hut, wa'maH

(I can also do English, Latin, Spanish, French, and Japanese.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

English Spanish German French

Yes

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days 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] 2 points 3 days ago
[–] [email protected] 65 points 3 days ago (5 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
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

If you didn't cheat that's actually pretty impressive.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It is astonishingly easy to get basically any LLM to output a simple iteration from one to ten function in all of those languages, and more.

Here's Assembly:

    newline db 0xA  ; Newline character

section .bss
    number resb 1  ; Reserve a byte for the number

section .text
    global _start

_start:
    mov ecx, 1  ; Start with 1
    mov edx, 10 ; End with 10

loop_start:
    cmp ecx, edx  ; Compare ecx with edx
    jg loop_end   ; If ecx > edx, jump to loop_end

    ; Convert number to ASCII
    add ecx, '0'  ; Convert number to ASCII
    mov [number], ecx  ; Store the ASCII value in number

    ; Print the number
    mov eax, 4        ; sys_write system call
    mov ebx, 1        ; File descriptor 1 is stdout
    mov ecx, number   ; Pointer to the number
    mov edx, 1        ; Number of bytes to write
    int 0x80          ; Call kernel

    ; Print newline
    mov eax, 4        ; sys_write system call
    mov ebx, 1        ; File descriptor 1 is stdout
    mov ecx, newline  ; Pointer to the newline character
    mov edx, 1        ; Number of bytes to write
    int 0x80          ; Call kernel

    sub ecx, '0'  ; Convert ASCII back to number
    inc ecx        ; Increment the number
    jmp loop_start  ; Jump back to the start of the loop

loop_end:
    ; Exit the program
    mov eax, 1        ; sys_exit system call
    xor ebx, ebx      ; Exit code 0
    int 0x80          ; Call kernel

Here's FORTRAN

program iterate_from_one_to_ten
    implicit none
    integer :: i

    ! Loop from 1 to 10
    do i = 1, 10
        print *, i
    end do
end program iterate_from_one_to_ten

Here's COBOL

PROGRAM-ID. IterateFromOneToTen.

ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.

DATA DIVISION.
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
    01  WS-Counter PIC 9(2) VALUE 1.

PROCEDURE DIVISION.
    PERFORM VARYING WS-Counter FROM 1 BY 1 UNTIL WS-Counter > 10
        DISPLAY WS-Counter
    END-PERFORM.

    STOP RUN.
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Why does that assembly code use a global variable for a loop value?? It's also ignoring register conventions (some registers need to be preserved before being modified by a function) which would probably break any codebase you use this in

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Because it was generated by an LLM that assumes this one to ten iteration function is the entirety of all of what the code needs to do.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

English, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin

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