How Many Fingers Do You Have?
Saturday December 31, 2005
Isn't that a rather strange question? All the same, I had an alert reader mail me that Louis Nizer's quotation (found in the Quotations on Responsibility) is incorrect. The quotation is "When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself." The alert reader writes that we have only four fingers and a thumb. So, if "a man" is pointing one finger at someone, there could be a maximum of three fingers pointing back at "himself." Interesting, right? Well, I am not going to modify the words that someone uttered. All the same, it is great to hear from readers. If you have something to say, please visit the Suggest / Submit / Comment page. Thanks.
Comments
In Spanish, and some other languages, we call “dedos” (fingers) to all fingers and thumbs.
If you ask that question to a Spaniard or a Latin, they will probably say “ten”. If you ask the same question in spanish (”¿Cuántos dedos tienes?”), they will probably answer “veinte” (twenty), because we also name the toes as “dedos” (”dedos de los pies”, that would be something like “feet’s fingers”, hehehe).
So, if the author of that quotation wasn’t an English native speaker, I think that could be the explanation…
wow. that is incredible. truely.. genious.
hi this is weard but do you have 10 finger on you or 8 fingers on you because do your thumd and pinky finger count as a fingers? well i dont know can you tell me later.
I think that the official answer would be 8 fingers and 2 thumbs. When the word “finger” is used loosely to include all the digits on our hand, people refer to 10 fingers.