# counting the number of F's **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639 "2003-07-15T13:34:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mrbuddylee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@mrbuddylee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrbuddylee)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/1 "2003-07-15T13:34:52Z")
Ok, I got this forwarded to me via email, and I was wondering if anyone can help me out. Here is the exact text: > [@](#): > > This will blow your mind…! > Just do it-don’t cheat! > Try this its actually quite good. > But don’t cheat! > Count the number of F’s in the following text: > FINISHED FILES ARE THE > RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC > STUDY COMBINED WITH THE > EXPERIENCE OF YEARS > (NOW, SCROLL DOWN) Hopefully this is off the page, but anyways, the answer is 6. I personally said 3. The email said that most people say 3 because the brain can’t process ‘of’. Now that I read the bottom, it’s really obvious, but why in the world did I miss ‘of’ the first time? Anyone know the reason why ‘of’ would be missed? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/2 "2003-07-15T13:46:15Z")
There is a theory that small, common words (eg prepositions) are recognised as a unit by the eye/brain, rather than as being made up of their constituent letters. Thus, you’ll tend to miss those Fs. I’ll have a hunt for a cite ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/3 "2003-07-15T13:50:45Z")
I have to admit, I counted only three Fs the first time through. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/4 "2003-07-15T13:52:15Z")
There’s a discussion about it here: [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linguistics/message/5460](http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linguistics/message/5460) My own pet theory is that it’s partly due to the preposition factor, and partly because the opening two words (“Finished files”) have a very strong “F” sound at the beginning, which conditions your brain to look for similar sounds in the rest of the sentence. In contrast, “Of” has an unstressed “V” sound, so as you read through in your head you miss them. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/5 "2003-07-15T13:58:25Z")
Here’s another discussion about this phenomenon from _New Scientist_. [http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/article.jsp?id=lw355](http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/article.jsp?id=lw355) I was slightly put out by the sentence “An intelligent seven-year-old or a proofreader would read six Fs, because they have learned to give all words equal values.” I am a sub-editor by profession, and guess how many Fs I saw when I first encountered this little puzzle? (Hint: it wasn’t six.) ---
**Author:** ![kuraijo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@kuraijo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kuraijo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/6 "2003-07-15T14:15:47Z")
I saw this one before (a different sentence though) so I counted 5. Missed one of the 'of’s. I think it’s because letters only register when you pronouce them. ‘of’ begins with the ‘o’ sound and is thus not registered. try it with other words. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/7 "2003-07-15T14:16:59Z")
I always start at the end and move my eyes backwards through the paragraph. Eliminates the recognition of a word and the resulting brain confusion with the “v” sound in “of”. ---
**Author:** ![radar\_ralf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@radar\_ralf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/radar_ralf)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/8 "2003-07-15T16:38:55Z")
!kcor uoy , **lliBelcnU** ---
**Author:** ![j.c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@j.c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j.c)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/9 "2003-07-16T07:20:26Z")
There’s no point to recognizing all the letters in a word if you are reading. That’s part of the point of phonics, ya know. If you have to count letters or proof all the numbers in a table, I suggest going backwards and using a ruler. Slow and geeky wins the race. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/10 "2003-07-16T12:44:45Z")
I’ve seen this many times. In group settings it is interesting to see how adamantly people defend their answer. The first time I saw this I got it right, but only because I did the proofreading trick of going backwards, as **UncleBill** and **j.c.** suggested. It has always been explained to me that the reason people miss the "f"s in “of” is because of the way it is pronounced… as “ov”. While this makes sense and explains the results, from a cognitive perception point of view it seems strange to me that when the instructions are to search for a particular shape, the brain would actually search for a sound. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/11 "2003-07-16T12:51:40Z")
**Sometimes we we only see what what we expect to to see** ---
**Author:** ![mrbuddylee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@mrbuddylee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrbuddylee)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/12 "2003-07-16T12:57:52Z")
Thanks for the replys, just wanted to share this, passed it around the office, a few people got 6, a couple got 5 (I have no idea) and a few others got 3. However, I sent this to my friend that is Indian but speaks English pretty well, and he got 6 without a problem. He actually does pronounce the ‘F’ in ‘of’ though. He was also saying that he’s noticed that Americans (at least around here) leave out quite a few letters when pronouncing words, and that’s why it was hard for him to get used to the English spoken here compared to the English spoken in India. Anyway, our minds are very strange things… ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/13 "2003-07-16T13:15:54Z")
I counted five too, and you know why? The “F” in ‘Scientific’ is buried three-quarters of the way into the word, and my eye missed it. Want something similar, but occuring in real life? Here’s the headline from a recent quarterly publication of the Queens Library: “Queens Library Unites with Mayor Bloomberg, New York Public and Brooklyn Public Libraries for Pubic/Private Partnership” Besides being a tounge-twister of a sentence, did you spot the misspelled/misplaced word? Took me three tries… ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/14 "2003-07-16T13:36:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by postcards \* > > “Queens Library Unites with Mayor Bloomberg, New York Public and Brooklyn Public Libraries for Pubic/Private Partnership” > > Besides being a tounge-twister of a sentence, did you spot the misspelled/misplaced word? Took me three tries… I caught it right away, but I think only because someone in another thread said s/he always misspells that word. I didn’t look at the OP because I know the trick, I think I got 4-5 the first time. I do know that many people who are not native Enlgish speakers tend to get it correct. Motorcycle Safety Classes do something similar, they put two 'the’s together and most people miss it. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/15 "2003-07-16T13:45:56Z")
postcards is right … the people who count five are generally missing the F in scientific ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/16 "2003-07-16T15:31:51Z")
Yep. I counted five. When I went back and recounted, it was the f in scientific I missed. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/17 "2003-07-16T17:59:26Z")
I was first presented with this exercise in my seventh grade band class. Most of us (myself included) only counted three Fs on the initial reading. The point of this exercise was to emphasize that when playing a complex piece of music, one has to watch for the “little” notes as well as the bigger notes. In other words, we shouldn’t read music in the same manner as we read text. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-the-number-of-fs/188639/18 "2003-07-16T18:54:34Z")
The first time I saw this, I think I got five, because I was on the lookout for those tricky "of"s, but I missed one of them. I think it was the last one, in “experience of years”: The first two are close together, which makes them more noticeable.