# In how many languages can you count to five? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 23, 2024, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694 "2024-07-23T16:21:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/1 "2024-07-23T16:21:09Z")
And what are they? My answer is, ironically, five. English, Spanish, French, German, and Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/2 "2024-07-23T16:23:20Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > English, Spanish, French, German, Three English, Spanish, German. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/3 "2024-07-23T16:24:41Z")
Five. English, French, German, Spanish\*, and Korean\*\*. \*- Thanks largely to _Sesame Street_. \*\*- Thanks to two years of taekwondo lessons. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/4 "2024-07-23T16:27:41Z")
theoretically three: Spanish, English and Greek. In practice only the first two, because I forgot practically all the Greek I studied in 2019 for my trip there. Also, like most of my generation, I can sorta count to three in German (phonetically) thanks to [Telematch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telematch)’s low cost Spanish overdub that let you hear the German words in the background. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/5 "2024-07-23T16:28:47Z")
Ten: English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Russian, Latin, and Old Church Slavonic ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/6 "2024-07-23T16:48:13Z")
Let’s see: English, Polish, Spanish, Hungarian, German, Serbian/Croatian, French, Russian. (The Slavic ones are all very closely related. I could probably add Czech/Slovak there, but I’d have to quickly confirm), Italian, Scots (only minor differences from English there, but it can be considered a dialect, not a language). ---
**Author:** ![Jegpeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jegpeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jegpeg)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/7 "2024-07-23T16:57:53Z")
English, French, German, definitely (from school many years ago), I might also Spanish and Italian but I could also possibly mix them up. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/8 "2024-07-23T17:01:11Z")
4: English, German, Spanish, French. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/9 "2024-07-23T17:02:50Z")
Four off the top of my head: English, Indonesian, Spanish, and French. Since I’ve studied both Arabic and Portuguese, a sneak peak at the dictionary would quickly remind me of those, but I can’t remember without a prompt. I could still WRITE one to five the way it’s done by Arabic speakers, though. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/10 "2024-07-23T17:08:23Z")
Lessee… Italian, Spanish, Russian, German, Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/11 "2024-07-23T17:18:26Z")
English, French, German, Luxembourgish, Spanish, Italian, Klingon. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/12 "2024-07-23T17:51:01Z")
English, french, spanish, german ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/13 "2024-07-23T17:55:18Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Three > English, Spanish, German. Same here. I can get to three in French. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/14 "2024-07-23T17:56:25Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Luxembourgish That’s a distinct language? ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/15 "2024-07-23T17:57:13Z")
Four - English, French, German and Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/16 "2024-07-23T18:09:52Z")
English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Vietnamese, Japanese. That’s eight. I took two years of Latin in high school, but remember almost none of it. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/17 "2024-07-23T18:14:31Z")
Hmm… English, Spanish, French, German, Telegu So 5. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/18 "2024-07-23T18:26:26Z")
Four. English (default), French (4 years in HS, much lost), Spanish (grew up in NM, so basic numbers were super helpful), Hebrew (almost entirely long lost Hebrew school practice). ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/19 "2024-07-23T18:32:15Z")
Four: English, French, German, Welsh ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694/20 "2024-07-23T18:38:13Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > > [@Cervaise](#): > > > > Luxembourgish > > That’s a distinct language? **[Yep](https://luxembourg.public.lu/en/society-and-culture/languages/introduction-letzebuergesch.html).** [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-how-many-languages-can-you-count-to-five/1004694.md?page=2)