Counting on your fingers

[Miss Chicken]

I am currently reading the book "Africa Counts" by Claudia Zaslavsky. This book looks at the way people in Africa count, the systems they use, their weights and measures, their mathematical games etc.


One passage from the book says

You may have ticked off on your fingers the number of guests you expected or the number of days to the next holiday. Perhaps you started with your thumb or maybe with your little finger. Did you think about whether you used your right hand or your left? Did it matter whether you extended each finger, bent it or tapped it with the index of the other hand?

The African would no more think of using so haphazardly than you would count: "three, one, six, eleven...." To the African the finger gestures constitute as formal a method of counting as do the spoken words. Most often the two methods of expression are used simultaneously --- the gestures accompany the spoken word. Go to a Hausa market and you will see people bargaining about prices, to the accompaniment of finger gestures. To indicate five, one hand is raised with the finger tips bunched together, and for ten the hands are bought together, with the finger tips of both hand touching.

So I am asking people here - do you count on your fingers, and if you do what method do you use? If you ever use number gestures when talking to another person, and if you do, what gestures do you use?

 

[Amaris]

I do count on my fingers, but I do it absently with no specified method of distinction between the various counting forms. As for gestures, I do make many gestures (no, not those) and usually talk with my hands. It takes real effort for me to keep my hands still when I talk.

 

[Jadzia]

I rarely count on my fingers, but sometimes I'll use hand gestures when counting things in conversation if we're trying to remember all instances of something. With this, I use my left hand with palm upward, with extended thumb marks number one. After five, the hand is closed so that six resembles one.

 

[6079SmithW]

I count left to right with my left pinkie being one and my right pinkie being ten.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I think I nearly always start counting on my left hand. I start with the thumb which I extend (at first), for the number 2 I join my thumb and my pointer (into the OK sign), for three I bring my thumb and middle finger together and so on. However I only count this way if I am only using my left hand and my right hand isn't needed or is busy holding something,

If I use both hands to count I start with the left hand but grab each finger with the thumb and index finger of the other hand. When I get to the right hand I start with grabbing the little finger.

I think that I used to count by joining my my right thumb to my other fingers on my right hand but can't due this anymore due to arthritis.

Edited to add - I just realised that when counting with with both hand it is only the first time the left hand is used that I start with the thumb i.e. the thumb extended is ONE but when I count 11 I grab the little finger of my left hand.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I only count on my fingers when doing math, not in conversation. I start on my left hand and extend the fingers outward with my palm facing me. I start with the index finger and then move right, with the thumb coming out last as number 5. On my right hand I do the same (except mirrored of course).

I've noticed that my boyfriend starts with his thumb and ends with the pinky finger. So, if I were to indicate number 3, I would have my three middle fingers extended with my thumb and pinky in towards my palm. He would have his thumb, index, and middle fingers extended. I actually find it a little painful to hold my fingers like that.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I would also like to ask people if the were discouraged from counting on their fingers when they were children because it was seen as "babyish". I certainly was.

In fact, thinking about it, i probably starting counting on the left hand the way I do because, when at school, I used to have to hide my left hand under the desk to count on my fingers. As I was relying on touch rather than sight I had to touch my other fingers with my thumb.

 

[LitmusDragon]

For some reason I seem to only retain things well if I hear them instead of thinking them so I will often count out-loud.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Go to a Hausa market and you will see people bargaining about prices, to the accompaniment of finger gestures.

This is customary in Boston as well.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I don't really count on my fingers, except for emphasis in conversation.

In those instances I use my right hand, back facing forward, starting with my thumb (one), thumb and index (two), thumb index and middle (three), thumb index middle ring (four), all fingers extended (five). I do the same with the left hand to count from six (thumb) to ten (all fingers).

Funny how we use so many different ways to count!

 

[Captain_Nick]

Counting to ten on your fingers is babyish. Counting to 1,023 is transcendant and beautiful.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I would also like to ask people if the were discouraged from counting on their fingers when they were children because it was seen as "babyish". I certainly was.

I don't think that adults actively discouraged it, but the other children thought it was silly and would probably giggle if they saw you doing it, maybe say something like, "wow, you still have to count on your fingers?"

I actually didn't count on my fingers much anyway as a child because I was better at math then (even good at it if I may say so!). Since I've been out of school I use my fingers more because my math skills have gotten so rusty. And I don't care if other adults think I'm silly, adding is so much easier when I can see it on my hands.

 

[WillsBabe]

So I am asking people here - do you count on your fingers,

I am seriously lousy at maths and numbers and count on my fingers all the time. I figure at my age, and being confident in my other strengths, that I don't care any more about doing it in public or the office, or whatever. I used to count on objects so that I didn't use my fingers. For example, adding 6 to 7 (yes, my maths is that poor) I would count the drawers of a filing cabinet, or the corners of a door, or some other such thing.

Miss Chicken, I've noticed over the years that you read some very interesting books. I'm intrigued by language, linguistics and semiotics, and this book looks very interesting.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I am glad to hear you find my reading list interesting. My interests cover many topics. I have a great pile of books on my "To Read List" including "The History of the Breast" (which looks at the attitude to women's breast through history) and also the "The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language".

If you are interested in linguistics etc you might be interested in this passage from "Africa Counts"

In spite of the wide distribution of African people and the existence of perhaps a thousand language on the continent, the words for two, three and four are similar in a area covering about half of Africa

in then goes on to tell of the region she is talking about.

Later on the same page she states

"Two" is usually a form of li or di. The word for three contains the syllable ta or sa, and 'four' is generally a nasal consonant like ne. "Five" has a variety of forms; frequently it is the word for hand.

 

[DeafPoet]

I can't multiply by 9 without my fingers. Thus a wood chipper is the clearest and most present danger against my ability to do math.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

When I finger count, I hold both hands in front of me with fingers extended, and then fold them down left to right as I count.

 

[Admiral Shran]

When making the hand gesture for counting, I start with my right index finger as one then proceed to my pinkie, which is four, and finish with the thumb as five. Then I start with my left hand.

For some reason, I don't like it when I see people use their thumbs as #1. It just irks me. I don't know why.

 

[lurok]

I would also like to ask people if the were discouraged from counting on their fingers when they were children because it was seen as "babyish". I certainly was.

Really interesting thread, especially many of responses. I found it particularly fascinating as counting on fingers was verbally and physically beaten out of me from a very early age. So I've never used finger-counting but I guess have used instinctive hand gestures.

 

[propita]

On rare occasions, I’ve used binary for counting on my fingers. Thumb is 1, little finger is 16.

 

[Spot's Meow]

When making the hand gesture for counting, I start with my right index finger as one then proceed to my pinkie, which is four, and finish with the thumb as five. Then I start with my left hand.

For some reason, I don't like it when I see people use their thumbs as #1. It just irks me. I don't know why.

I know what you mean! I also use my thumb last and it kind of annoys me a bit when I see the thumb used first. I really don't know why, it just seems wrong and I have an overwhelming urge to tell the person doing it that it's so much better my way. Usually I keep my mouth shut though, I can be polite!