When I got back to Japan and started working at an English language school, one Japanese bilingual teacher asked me this question.
"How many fingers do you have?"
"I think, I have ten (fingers)," I answered.
But, he didn't say that my answer was right. Why? Let's take a look at a dictionary written for ESL learners.
According to Collins Cobuild Advanced Dictionary of American Enlgish:
Your hands are the parts of your body at the end of your
arms. Each hand has four fingers and a thumb.
He insisted that a person have eight fingers, relying on this dictionary definition. Well,...
I am not a native speaker of English, so I have been asking my American friends this question. I haven't found anyone who immediately answered "eight" yet.
1 comment:
I consider the thumb a finger, just like a "pinkie" is a finger. Ten fingers--but one is more specifically a thumb.
I think the common phrase about a healthy baby that has "ten fingers and ten toes" is indicative of common usage saying ten fingers. :)
Mir
Post a Comment