# Languages of which you know at least 10 words **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 6, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932 "2012-10-06T20:12:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/1 "2012-10-06T20:12:54Z")
Not counting English (if you post on this MB, you know 10 words of English) or made-up languages (Klingon, Esperanto, etc.). For me: **Americas** : - Lakota **Europe** : - Spanish - Portuguese - French - German - Dutch - Danish - Norwegian - Swedish - Italian - Russian - Greek **Africa** : - None (unless you count Afrikaans as distinct from Dutch) **Asia** : - Hindi - Persian - Arabic - Hebrew - Mandarin - Cantonese - Vietnamese - Korean - Japanese **Oceana** : - Hawaiian - Maori **Notable Misses (to be filled in at some point in the future):** - Finish - Turkish - Swahili - Hungarian - All the other Slavic languages - Basque - Georgian - Navajo - Cheyenne ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/2 "2012-10-06T20:20:31Z")
I have a vocabulary of about 200 or 300 words in my native language, Yiddish (strange but true), several thousand words in French, a hundred or so in Italian, a few dozen in Spanish, maybe a dozen or two dozen in Hebrew, several hundred in Latin probably (though never formally studied Latin even for a minute), and th-th-th-that’s all, folks. (Does Pig Latin count?) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/3 "2012-10-06T20:24:13Z")
Oh, Latin. I guess I should add that one, but it’s dead, so maybe not. Anyone can count that one if he wishes. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/4 "2012-10-06T20:30:30Z")
Fluent in English A smattering of: Spanish (studied in school) French (listened to tapes) Japanese (listened to tapes) I’m sure I probably know ten words of Russian, Italian and German, but I couldn’t string them together into a sentence (does “Ich bin ein Berliner” count?) > [@John\_Mace](#): > > Oh, Latin. I guess I should add that one, but it’s dead, so maybe not. “Latin is a language, as dead as it can be, it killed the ancient Romans, and now it’s killing me.” ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/5 "2012-10-06T20:32:26Z")
I’m fluent in Latvian, wonder if there are any other Latvian Dopers? 🙂 Latin, French, Spanish, German, nothing else all that interesting. ETA: I should clarify that I can speak Latvian, writing is another matter entirely! ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/6 "2012-10-06T20:33:58Z")
Hmm. Ten words? Not very many. Somali, French, English, German, Russian, spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Latin, ancient Greek, probably Hebrew, ancien français if that counts, romanian! oh yeah Turkish and Irish. Mandarin I forgot about, and Japanese. Mind you, I can only speak a few of these, and most not at all except a few little tourist phrases. Probably a pretty short list compared to most of you book people. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/7 "2012-10-06T21:04:04Z")
Depends on whether you mean “know right now” or “knew at one time.” Besides English, I speak with varying degrees of fluency Spanish, French, and a little Portuguese. At one time I could read German. As I scientist, I know a fair amount of Latin and ancient Greek. Being from New York, I know plenty of Italian and Yiddish words. While traveling, I picked up a little Hindi, Swahili, Tagalog, and Maori. And I made an attempt to learn some Irish Gaelic once. No doubt I know ten words of Russian, Arabic, and Hebrew also. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/8 "2012-10-06T21:05:54Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > I have a vocabulary of about 200 or 300 words in my native language, Yiddish (strange but true)… I think you’re working from a different definition of native language. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/9 "2012-10-06T21:14:24Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > I’m fluent in Latvian, wonder if there are any other Latvian Dopers? 🙂 I’m an American, but my descent is half-Latvian. Does that count? Sadly, I don’t know ten words from that language. It’s a pity ☹ The only language I’m fluent in is English. I did study Spanish in school for three years, but that was many years ago. So, I’m not fluent, but I do know lotsa words. Ten words? Lessee… German. My mom is German, so I gleaned a lot from her. I know how to count to ten, so there’s that right there. But I know a few words more than that. Italian. I’m a big opera fan, and there’s no way around Italian being that. I think that’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/10 "2012-10-06T21:20:11Z")
Um, that I can think of: Conversational French & German, Bits of Latin -learnt for a year at school; Welsh -started learning it as a kid when we planned to move there, but the move fell through, and I’ve forgotten most; Maori -lots of animal names and random bits; Malaysian -a few scraps learnt on holiday; Finnish -ditto; Spanish -very little… I can probably scrape together 10 words of Polish, Japanese and Swahili, can’t think of anything else. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/11 "2012-10-06T21:31:00Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Depends on whether you mean “know right now” or “knew at one time.” > > Besides English, I speak with varying degrees of fluency Spanish, French, and a little Portuguese. At one time I could read German. As I scientist, I know a fair amount of Latin and ancient Greek. Being from New York, I know plenty of Italian and Yiddish words. > > While traveling, I picked up a little Hindi, Swahili, Tagalog, and Maori. And I made an attempt to learn some Irish Gaelic once. > > No doubt I know ten words of Russian, Arabic, and Hebrew also. No Native American Languages? Remember, the criterion is only that you know 10 words. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/12 "2012-10-06T21:33:53Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > I think you’re working from a different definition of native language. The first language I spoke as a baby? I think that’s my native language. It’s down to a few hundred words by this point (the people I spoke it with, my parents and grandmother, have been dead for over forty years) but it is in the most technical sense my native language. I spoke it, and I didn’t speak any English, for almost a year when I was learning to speak. Yiddish is my mama-loshen. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/13 "2012-10-06T21:42:21Z")
Spanish, French, Latin, American Sign Language, Turkish, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Mongolian, Malagasy, Thai After ASL in that line-up, we’re talking \*maybe \*10 words. What is the idea of this, though? Should I reread? ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/14 "2012-10-06T21:52:12Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > I’m an American, but my descent is half-Latvian. Does that count? > > Sadly, I don’t know ten words from that language. It’s a pity ☹ I’m American too, but both my parents’ families came over during WWII. I grew up speaking only Latvian until age 5 when I started school and needed a crash course on phrases like, “I need to use the bathroom”. I remember being completely baffled when I’d talk to my teacher and she’d look at me like she didn’t know what in the world I was saying. I must’ve been speaking Latvian. 😃 I learned English pretty fast, though. I don’t remember ever feeling left out by the other kids or anything. There are a number of basic online Latvian language courses if you want to get your ten words. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/15 "2012-10-06T21:57:00Z")
> [@tapu](#): > > What is the idea of this, though? Should I reread? I love languages, and always try to learn at least a few words when I travel or otherwise encounter a certain language. I picked 10 because I didn’t want people to think they had to be fluent, but I didn’t want people to count languages where they knew how to say “hello”. Somewhat arbitrary. I figured it would be easy to count to ten. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/16 "2012-10-06T22:00:39Z")
I… I… I fudged. For some, I had known at least ten words when studying something about them; then, onto the same feature in another language, or another feature, and in another language, altogether. I often look back wistfully at when I was actively engaged with speakers of one or another language. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/17 "2012-10-06T22:02:12Z")
Depends. Does food count? ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyMac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@JohnnyMac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyMac)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/18 "2012-10-06T22:03:39Z")
Not many! Spanish is the only one I really speak…other than that it depends if you mean “know when I see” or “can make a list of”. Ones I can make a list of ten words in: Spanish Maori French Latin Russian German Ones I would recognise at least ten in, when I see them written: Italian Portuguese Huh. That was more than I was expecting when I started. I only know two words of Quechua, but I’d like to learn more. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/19 "2012-10-06T22:45:25Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > No Native American Languages? Remember, the criterion is only that you know 10 words. I suppose I might know that many animal or food names in Algonquin or Nahuatl but only because the words have entered English or Spanish. I suppose at one point or another I’ve learned that many in Kuna or Embera, but can’t recall them offhand. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932/20 "2012-10-06T22:48:25Z")
Spanish, Navajo, French, German. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/languages-of-which-you-know-at-least-10-words/636932.md?page=2)