Global Variations in Finger Counting Practices | May 06 2024, 20:55

It turns out there are differences in how people count on their fingers (there’s even a term for it — dactylonomy). It could easily give you away as a spy 🙂

In Russia and countries of the former USSR, counting to ten on fingers starts by bending the pinky of the left hand and progresses sequentially to the bent thumb of the right hand. However, when it’s necessary to visibly show a number, the hand clenches into a fist and then opens first with the index finger, followed by the middle, ring, pinky, and thumb.

But in the American convention, for example, counting starts with the index finger. The thumb is kept pressed against the palm to show numbers from 1 to 4, and only extended (along with all four fingers) to indicate the number 5.

In countries like Germany, France, Italy, and others, it seems that locals generally start counting with the thumb (=1), adding one finger for each subsequent number up to five.

In Eastern countries, such as Iran, they often begin with the pinky of the right hand, and finish with the thumb. But these are all linear systems.

In Japan, however, the finger counting system is reversed. Instead of showing numbers by raising fingers, it’s the fingers that are hidden in the hand that indicate the number. It starts with the thumb and hides the subsequent fingers in the hand, counting upwards until a closed palm shows the number five.

In China, counting up to five is more or less the same as in the West, but after six it becomes peculiar; there are special configurations indicating 7, 8, 9, 10.

The way to show “2” might lead to misunderstandings if someone accustomed to the Chinese method sees the German “two” with a thumb and index finger, because it would mean “8” in Chinese finger counting (see below). I find it very fascinating (and useful!) that you can count up to 10 in Chinese using just one hand!

When showing the number “2” in the UK the American way (with the index and middle fingers), be careful not to turn your palm inward toward yourself, as this gesture is perceived (or used to be perceived, but who knows whom you’re dealing with) as an insult in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.