Well, such a remarkable interesting question. Personally, I speak 3 languages, Arabic as a native language, English as a foreign language and my professional one, and I speak some French as my passion language.

It depends on the situation that I am thinking of, but most of the time I think using English, even when I talk to myself.

By using English my ideas flow smoothly.

English Language

Indeed this is a remarkable question. It makes me think and reflect... I speak fluently 2 languages (Portuguese as a native speaker and English as a foreign language), but I am learning two other languages: Italian and Spanish.

I guess most of times, especially when I am working and studying, I think in English. However, when I want to be romantic or even fun, I think in Italian - which is, in fact, really close to Portuguese. Latin languages have somewhat a warm embracing appeal.

I think that each language represents a vision of the world and a specific way to express it. Nevertheless, experiments can be done. Spanish to express life can be adapted to English, which is bent to accept all influences. French is a jealous exclusive language and most French ain't that good at languages and claim French should be the international language. Catalan had been going through an horrible "normalization" that cut off the innate poetry of the language, to show how modern they are and, at Catalan school, they don't teach you Catalan authors (because none is respecting the stupid unlinguistic laws) but supermarket lists (supermarkets respect the stupid "Normalization"). I love Italian, understand almost everything and feel bent to it, like a natural thing that correspond to my way of being but I don't speak it in order to preserve my Spanish. I can also read Greek and Russian (I know cyrillic alphabet) and understand them basically by etymology (f.e. plants vocabulary). It's been a long time I've been interested in ideograms, but I never found time enough to seriously study Chinese. But maybe, because of my historical research, I'll have to study Arab, which is a language I feel bent to. I worked with some friend, that did the literate translation from Arab to French. My job was to find the poetic aspect and find out how it influence the meaning. I think nowadays Arab language isn't very well known, even if it's diversely spoken in many countries because poetry definitively escapes to capitalism.

First language

It is indeed a very interesting question. I speak 3 languages and a few dialects of my country. My native language is Sindhi, national language is Urdu and English is a foreign language for me. When I first started learning English I used to think in my first language that is Sindhi but after almost 15 years now I think in English which is quite strange for me because in my family no one speaks English and also I communicate with my friends in my first language or national language. I only speak in English when I am in my department talking to my colleagues or my supervisors.

"When you fall in love" with a language early on, you dream, eat, think in that language ... Since I speak five languages that belong to very different families, I am lucky to have a choice, and that is English. English has grown upon me like a cape which makes me invisible at times in terms of my native origins. It is not that I want to belong to another culture or something, but being away from my homeland for such a long time and due to the nature of my work, most of my reading is in English...

An intriguing question by Fred Romano . For bilinguals it will depend on the linguistic context (L1 or L2) in which a particular incident has taken place. Sometimes though the subconscious mind interrupts by sending L2 messages in one's dreams- and that's when one truly becomes a bilingual. Quote me if you can.

I was raised up in Spain with French school by mail. My parents had strange rules such as, if I wanted to eat, I had to ask it in English. By the age of 10, I learned the existence of Catalan, behind curtains, because it was then a forbidden language in Spain. By the age of 13, I met an immigrant from Rumanian, who risked his life, and his family's, for a 17th C. book, written by monks, showing the Latin roots of Rumanian when Ceausescu the dictator was absurdly claiming Rumanian was of slavish origin. I love languages, even informatics ones (I'm quite good with my own JavaScript orations). I dream in 3 or more languages. Do you think it's like having various subconscious?

You're a brilliant and unique multilingual Fred Romano . Very happy multilingual dreams.

;-)

Fred Romano, great question! I must learn dutch, also my english is not good, but I think in may first language. That is bosnian.:) Italian is beautiful language. Maybe one day I start with them:)

Interesting question. Somehow, because I live in a predominantly English speaking country (New Zealand), I tend to think in English. I do sometimes find my first language, Tagalog, interrupting my train of thought so I tend to utter a random word before I speak in English. It also unusually messes up gender-specific pronouns in my uttered English sentences because Tagalog only has neutral pronouns.

None. That is, thought happens, and then one has to go to an effort to put it in a communicable form in some language. But the thought is prior to that effort. I often find myself groping for words to express some distinct impression I have, which means that the impression exists prior to the words. Thought is often parallel, in the sense that multiple feelings and meanings combine from different sources. To serialize this into language often changes, even cripples, sometimes enriches, the original thought, but it is the price we pay for communication. Even as you read this, my language is being used to play your mind like an instrument, evoking in you something which I hope is analogous to the meaning I intend to convey. That is the wealth and the poverty, the strength and the weakness, in short, the beautiful tragic quandary of language.

Le langage survient APRÈS la pensée, et non AVANT.

C'est vrai Mr. Rober Fournier. Mais parfois on pense et produit un discours avec lui-même simultanément. En d'autres termes, penser à voix haute.

Quand vous pensez "à voix haute", c'est que vous êtes en train d'extérioriser verbalement votre pensée au moyen du langage et d'une langue en particulier.

@Robert Fournier La pensée se formerait avant le langage? Et sous quelle forme? Je crois plutôt que la pensée se définit dans son corps à corps avec le langage, qu'elle naît de ses contraintes.

Most of the times my thoughts do not really have a specific 'language', it is only when I try to decipher them more in depth that I realise that I'm using one of the languages that I speak almost every day (Italian, English and Spanish), so for me my thoughts are abstract, I do understand them but often I do not need to 'translate' them into a language. But again, if I concentrate on this, then I think in the language that I've used most recently with other people (or after reading/watching). If I happen to be alone for a while then my mother tongue (Italian/Italian dialect) prevails, but most of the times my thoughts are not expressed in a particular language.

@Stef Barozzi, your thoughts have to expressed themselves some way, so you can catch and understand them. Which way are they expressed before language? Something like a music (air vibration) or a feeling you later on dress up with words?

I think in Spanish, French or Standard English. The latter is literally my first language, but I tend to do all "intelectual" thinking in Spanish, my almost exclusive schooling language. (I do arithmetic in Spanish; I only do it in English for teaching purposes). French, the language I started learning as a teenager, keeps me distant from negative emotional situations. If things are bad I start muttering in French or talking to myself in the language. It's a way of being less upset. Then, here comes Creole English! Am I going to mock you or make fun of you (in the presence of my intimates or in my mind)? That's when Creole English imposes itself, and I (we) either have a short laugh or roll in the aisles.

Un petit texte de mon ami écrivain Khal torabully:

"Macron à Erevan a déclaré que l'anglais est une langue de consommation et le français une langue de création. Il ravive la guerre linguistique en avançant une contre-vérité. L'anglais est bel et bien une langue utilitaire, c'est ce qui en fait la langue du business international. Mais le réduire à n'être que cela relève d'une étrange myopie langagière. On a le droit d'être bilingue ou multilingue et il faut sortir de ces oppositions binaires francophones... Quant à moi, je suis heureux d'écrire en trois langues, j'aime le français qui me donne des amplitudes particulières, mais aussi l'anglais, le créole, le chinois, le hindi, l'urdu, l'arabe, l'espagnol, l'italien, le portugais... Chaque langue a son génie et ce ne sont pas les tirades géopolitiques maladroites ou hautaines du locataire de l'Elysée qui changeront cette réalité des faits. " Moi aussi, je suis scandalisée au nom de la linguistique...

Usually thought is in the native language. In other languages the functionality is there but fluency is not complete.

One exception is when reading a different language, singing it, or listening to spoken language. There is not time enough to make the translation.

Another exception is when a seldom used word or phase is in mind from experience in the other language but that same experience did not occur in the native language.

Living in a foreign country for a number of years and functioning in the local language left a lasting impression on thoughts and values. Also frequent travel to other countries changes thought preferences to some extent.

Dreaming occasionally occurs briefly in another language after it has been used a lot in waking hours and foreign travels.

I think we usually think in our mother tongue, unless there is a concept which is best expressed in another language then we revert to that.

I wanted to pinpoint that new generation, at ease with multi languages, that don't let anymore academical discourse brake their hunger for communication. Ways of dreaming change, too. And I'm sure it will be profitable to all languages, even if some odd rules may happen to disappear. It's life. It's language.

It depends on the social context and the people I am thinking of or interacting with

Great question. You might be interested in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which went further (as I understand it) to claim that the structures of one's birth language influence the way one thinks. Jury's still out on that one, I believe ...

Fred Romano that must be the first 'academic wink' ever on Research Gate'. Congratulations.Any challengers speak now.

I like Chomsky's hypothesis around universal grammar. I love to use a refined language, mostly because I'm kind of lazy: refined vocabulary such as intangible is common and with similar meaning in the three languages: Spanish, French and English, so I don't have to switch my mind to another language and I can stay in that -almost- universal vocabulary zone, and it makes my translations easier (less words to translate). And I have the sensation in English, this refined vocabulary is instinctively understood as "noble". Which is quite logical, thought it came to English when protestant nobles flew from religion's wars in France. It became fashionable in English during the French Revolution, when French nobles massively flew away from France. It became fashionable in Spanish also during the French Revolution, as a Royal support by language to French nobility. Because French Bourbon were kings in Spain.

This question is very intriguing . especially for people that are bi- or multilingual, like me.

Even when I speak, I can observe myself applying code-switching between languages.

My two native languages are German and Turkish. Nevertheless, I feel more comfortable expressing abstract concepts in German. I feel comfortable talking about family and food in Turkish. And I feel most comfortable to talk about emotions in English. I started learning English with 8 years.

It was intersting to experience myself dream in each of these languages but also Spanish - a language I started learning a year ago.

This is a very intricate matter with many dimensions to take into consideration and to ponder about.

I'm thinking in English right now as I write this answer in English. If I write it in Japanese, I'll be thinking in Japanese. Contexts and many other factors dictate and trigger the switch. Code-switching is another interesting phenomenon to consider with regard to this question.

@Tomoko Takahashi yes code-switching is fascinating and more: in which language is done the code-switching order? Because code switching is much more than simply changing vocabulary, it's moving from a state of mind and global representation of the world to another, basically distinct. I definitively don't think the same way in English and French and even don't get the same ideas with different languages. Entering a language is like entering a role, it have to be total to turn understandable. You just can't stay "yourself" in your original language, in a second you have to adapt it to new language circumstances, that implies different organs of yours, feeling things a distinct way, all this far above our conscious will. So, is there an universal basic grammar that gives basic orders such as switching roles?

I am a native English speaker. Much of the time I assume I am thinking in English, but it can sometimes actually be a melange of languages. This becomes obvious when I speak aloud and someone asks me to interpret what I just said. Then I realize that I unintentionally codeswitched or even sim-com'ed (speaking a verbal language and signing at the same time).

I think in English, a language that comes easily when am annoyed than my mother tongue Tugen or my second language Kiswahili.

I am going to conduct a research on legal data which concerned the translations of provincial laws in English language constituted during colonial era. Although it is amended many times according to our needs and specimens but most of our people are unable to understand law in English. In regard to facilitate them we translated it in our national language Urdu. The purpose of research is to provide them target text in an unambiguous form. Fred Romano Eman Adil Jaafar prisca jerono

Mostly English because I have forgotten most other languages other than Spanish. When I do multiplication or try to recall from the times table I somehow switch to the native language I learned the tables from. Also I believe instantaneous emotional expressions go through my mind perhaps in the native language more so than English, the second language.

I have high competence in three languages: Kikuyu, Kiswahili and English. In my day to day life (including in my writing and teaching) I mostly use Kiswahili. However, when it comes to thinking (dreaming and praying) it is my first language - Kikuyu - that comes into play.

For bi and multilinguals the language in which you think may be multiply determined, (e.g. fluency, age of learning, social context). Francious Grosjean has commented on the latter, noting that he personally uses English for doing science (and dislikes it when scientists start talking to him in French when talking to him one on one), and uses French at home with his family (the language of closeness/intimacy-which might be why he resents scientists using French when talking to him one on one).

I personally think that degree of fluency in a language determines whether one can/does think in the language, unless one is referring to purely visual spatial thinking. If one is not fluent in a language, one is hard pressed to think in that language-a large part of the cognitve effort seems to go to mental translation in fact. Personal experience has shown that my ability to think in my available foreign languages waxes and wanes with the extent of my use of those languages (hence my fluency fluctuates). As my fluency returns, so does my ability to think in the foreign language.

When I switch to another language, it's like a relief at times. After a strong writing session in French, I enjoy to be able to visit another vision of the world through language, Spanish or English and I even need it. I think only one language makes it dominate your thoughts, by the specific way of every language to express things.

The language in which you interact with people and speak for the maximum time.

I speak Chinese as mother tongue and English as a foreign language. I think that when i am speaking chinese, i think in chinese. And when I am speaking English, I am thinking in English most of the time.But sometimes when i deal with difficult or abstract or unfamiliar topic my mother tongue inevitably comes to rescue.

Mother tongue is the language of thought. My MT is Yoruba language and so it is my language of thought.

It depends. Mostly I think in Portuguese, my mother tongue, but I sometimes think in English too. I also like to talk to myself in English, German, French and Spanish. That makes for a great pastime and training.

I usually say that English is the best language to talk/write about science fiction; German is the best language to talk/write about Philosophy; Spanish is the best language to tell jokes; French is the best language to talk/write about beauty (or to curse); and Portuguese is the best language to talk/write about law.

Israel A. C. Noletto To me, American English is the best for writing, German is for musicians, French for diplomats, Spanish for philosophy (only language in the world having two verbs for "to be", ser for being all the times, estar for momentous things), Catalan for poetry, Hungarian for not being understood, Russian to speak easily all other language and Italian to curse ;-))

Quite an interesting question. I'm not quite sure.

I am Brazilian, born and raised here, and both my parents are fluent in Portuguese, though neither speak it as a native language. My mom's parents are Japanese immigrants and as such her first language is definitely Japanese (she claims to think almost exclusively in Japanese to this day), while dad apparently learned Japanese first but currently speaks Portuguese much better (does fairly well in both, though). They didn't intend to raise me on Japanese and as such they talked to me almost exclusively in Portuguese for most of my childhood, but I started taking Japanese classes at age 3 and got significantly better around age 7-9 (yes, because of anime), though I'm not exactly fluent even to this day. And, as I gradually came to actually understand Japanese, the amount of Japanese spoken to me increased accordingly. Nowadays, more complex thoughts are inevitably thought in Portuguese, but I tend to rely on Japanese more to describe feelings in their rawest form. And, to tell the truth, I'm not quite sure if these thoughts in Japanese started surfacing only once I got a better hang of it or if they were always kind of there (even when my parents wouldn't talk to me in Japanese, there was always quite a lot of Japanese going around between them, and I have had a rudimentary grasp of the language for pretty much as long as I can remember).

And then there's English. I started learning it in my early teens and, though I never truly needed it that much for work or studies, pretty much everything I do on the internet for fun is in English. As a result, I'm basically fluent in English now, having passed CPE with an A not too long ago. Taking into account that I barely passed N3 (though that was almost 10 years ago), it's clear that my English is leagues ahead of my Japanese, yet English is basically nonexistent in my mind if I'm not holding my phone or surfing the internet. However, it is the predominant language (even over Portuguese) whenever I'm discussing anything a little more heavy on jargon, *even if I learned it in Portuguese to begin with*.

In conclusion, it's a mess, not even I know the answer.

dear Elis Ota it's not a mess, it just mean you're a polyglot and I consider to a point you can add whatever language to that list. Myself, I have different uses for any language I speak and I love switching from one to another. For my historical investigations, it is very useful to speak or only read various languages and that way have access to various cultural backgrounds and escape one-and-only truth.

My question is this: Is the language you talk to yourself in the same as the language you think in? Dealing almost daily with Spanish speakers, my Spanish is getting much better and I am a native English speaker. I can talk to myself in either with a bias to English. However, I am inclined to claim that I think in something neutral to both languages. Not all thoughts need to be verbalized, if only in my head. Thoughts can come out of my mouth in either selected language. But I feel there is no translation going on from English to Spanish or vice versa.

I consider I don't talk to me, in my head, and even in the case of surprise, I don't talk always the same language. Depends what I'm talking about. But I must recognize since long I identified a lot of common words (such as intangible, the same in French English Spanish with the same sense) so I preferentially use them, to be caught by the maximum. Those words are common for historical reasons, for example, in England it became fashionable in high society to speak French, when religion wars exiled to England thousands of aristocratic protestants, or when French Revolution exiled thousands of ruined aristocrats. In Spain, we still have a Bourbon king. First Bourbon king of Spain, Louis XIV' grandson, just wanted to wipe out the former Austrian dynasty'memory and was into marking Spain as French.

The real question is this: in which languange do you count (1, 2, 3...) and in which languange do you run the alphabet (a, b, c...).

That what will tel you what language you really think in...

Francis Steven Mickus

That seems like a good measure; however, I count or do the alphabet in either of my languages, and sometimes at random times (not necessarily situational), and sometimes code-switching: uno, dos, three. I might even toss in some French or German--if the numbers are real small.

Does anyone else have preferences for counting and spelling?

Francis Steven Mickus do you really know people that still count or do alphabet in the era machines and programs do it so much better ? Anyone is using a calculator on the cellular. On another hand, when I have to do long IRM (hour and half), in order to keep cool, I repeat to myself the multiplication tables in French.

My mother language is Arabic but, I talk with my self in Arabic and English.

Fred Romano

I not only count instead of using a calculator for most things, but now teach math to students in Spanish, who are learning English. No calculators for them either, at least for now. Since the students are learning English simultaneously, I do a lot of spelling, too...in both languages.

Thinking is process carried out in brain with less effort(mother tongue language)

My mother tongue is Arabic .. and

I communicae with others by Englich language

My native language is Arabic but I mostly use English and I hope to learn German.

Fred Romano: my point being in what language do you recite the letters a, b, c, etc. or the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc. not so much additions and the multiplication tables. The more complex set-ups such as the multiplication tables are more a matter of eductation, or more precisely schooling, but they are not the languages in which we think. My sister sets up her divisions using the American system whereas I set them up using the French system. We went through different elementary schools, but we are both functionally bilingual.

for more formal questions the language is more akin to where I learned the information. I think more swiftly in English when thinking about film, which I studied in California, but in French for art History, which i studied in Paris...

In the English Language!

I'm studying Translation and actually I think in my 4th language which is Chinese, because I spend time only with Chinese people and I even dream in Chinese.

I think in my native Language.

Spanish is my native lenguage, but most of the time I think in english and speak to myself in english, I know my english may not be perfect but somehow it's easier, the problem with this is that I have very poor speaking skills in my first lenguage. Sometimes I think I just don't like it and I reject it, even my culture that of course comes with it. It's crazy I know even sounds stupid, but I'm very concern because I need to improve my skills and I guess fall in love with Spanish or relearn it...

I don't understand what's happening and I don't know what to do.

Usually I think in my native tongue, but I think that also it is possible to think in a foreign one.

With some new exceptions, I think all of us think in their native tongue.

Still, I thin that after a certain years of practice, one may be also capable to think in other language too.

I tend to think in Afrikaans and English at the same time. I talk to myself in Afrikaans but reply to my own thought in English. Sometimes I use some German and Greek when I argue with myself.

it depends on my mood or situation, at times i think in chavacano, english, sinama, or even Filipino or Cenbuano. if Im in malaysia, my Moro tongue would be in function, if Im Cebu, my cebuano would go hyperdrive, if im in zamboanga well, my local dialects are my thinking voice. Inggeris (English), If im talking to someone in =English or im teaching in English, so i dont run out of words.

My mother language is Bengali. This language is as sweet to me as honey. I love my language and I think in Bengali. I also communicate in Hindi and English.