I know peoples minds work differently, but those of you who tend to have an inner monologue/dialogue going on on your head throughout the day.
Do you only think in your native language, or do you also sometimes think in another language? Hope this makes sense

48 comments

  1. If I’m in an English speaking context, I can think in English, same with German, I might think in German. Other than that, my language skills don’t suffice. I think thinking in a language is a good indicator of fluency, though not necessarily a sound one. While I might be able to think in German, my German—especially written—is extremely rusty.

  2. I’m an English native speaker, and I work full-time as a French and German teacher.

    90% of the time I think in English, but if I’ve been using a lot or French or German then I think in that language (for example if I’ve been using French literally all day).

    Some German words randomly pop into my head more than English, like certain adjectives or nouns.

  3. My inner monologue doesn’t really have a language I just somehow know what I think and only when I’m not as fluent in a language ( French for instance) do I have to really think about what I’m going to say.

  4. Definitely. I work in an English-speaking environment, and when I am focused on a task where interactions or documentation are in English, my brain seems to switch to English and I sometimes have trouble finding some words in my own language! In meetings or trainings, I also take notes directly in English so that my brain does not “lose time” on translating what I want to write down.

  5. When I count or do anything related to numbers I have to do so in my native language. I find it quite bizarre actually since I no longer use it on a daily basis

  6. I spend more than half of the day in English part of the Internet and I used to work in English too. I think I definitely spend more time thinking in English than Polish on daily basis.

    That being said, it doesn’t impede my ability to quickly change the language when needed. So I can talk in Polish with my family but watch a movie in English at the same time.

    I rarely remember my dreams but some also happen in English and it freaks me out when I wake up lol. It’s cool tho.

  7. I don’t think in language, as in I don’t really have a monologue going in my head, the only time I think in language is when I have to write or say something.

  8. I think in Dutch and English and it seems kind of random which I use, maybe because I use a lot of English in my daily life.

  9. very often. i work in an international setting where english is spoken 90% of the time, so any internal dialogue or even dream about it tends to come in english.

  10. definitely, i mean i practically live on english speaking internet (not healthy, i’m working on getting offline more) so i’m used to the language

  11. I think in English because I moved to an English speaking country when I was 7 and did all my schooling/college in English. Now I work in another country where the work language is English. I only use Polish to talk with my mom and the few Polish people I meet, or watch the odd Youtube video. My vocab and grammar in Polish suck so I don’t like to use it.

  12. Yes and its becoming a problem because my Dutch isnt developing as a result. Once I became aware of it i tried to stop doing it and i have partially succeeded.

  13. Yes, I often talk to myself in English, regardless of context or previous interaction.

    Sometimes even in French, but that is rare.

  14. Upon living or spending time in another -English speaking- country, yes.

    I’ve spent 5 days in Amsterdam, and I think in English. Should take about the same time to get back to French once back home.

  15. I sometimes do. It is largely based on environment. I primarily think in Danish, but if I visit my friends and family in Poland, I may start having some thoughts in Polish. I recently studied in the UK, so I also sometimes think in English, as that was all around me for a few years

  16. Thinking only happens in my native language, unless I try to translate something or type something in English.

    English language is very present in my life, but only via internet (music, reddit, Google, Youtube). When I go outside or talk to other people, I don’t need it. If they’d shut off the internet, English would be almost gone in my life.

  17. I usually think in English but sometimes I still think in my native language if I’m at school or something similar

  18. Definitely, I often have an inner monologue in English. Especially when I’m on the internet.

    Interestingly, I’m learning Chinese at the moment and a few days ago I had a dream and my inner monologue was in Chinese. That was very weird sensation when I woke up.

  19. It depends on external context (for example, am I around my German-speaking mother or at my French-speaking workplace) and the content of my thoughts (since I’m writing my story in English, I have most of my ideas and inspiration for dialogues and plot directly in said language without the process of having to translate it from my native languages to English; same with my thoughts about subjects I’ve only heard/learned/talked about in English, since it ends up dictating which terms and idioms I’m more likely to know and think of).

    However, there are also instances when a specific wording comes to me in one language but it’s not the one I have to use with my interlocutor.

  20. I usually think in English, even more when I’m imagining having a conversation with foreigners…
    Otherwise I think in portuguese.

  21. Usually only when I reading a novel or text written in English. Sometimes when I’m writing a text in English.

  22. I am a simple man from finland, and i think in finnish, german, swedish and english

  23. It depends on the context. If I’m reading an anglophone website or if I’m talking to my girlfriend, I’ll think in English. If I’m talking with Dutch people or reading a Dutch text, I’ll think in Dutch.

  24. I was raised bi-lingual, Frisian/Dutch. I now live in Scotland and have lived in the UK for 15 years.

    My predominant ‘mind voice’ is now English, especially that is what me and my OH speak But I can switch instantly between the three. What I do notice is that increasingly English is creeping into my Dutch, weirdly enough, not into my Frisian…

  25. I’m using English quite a bit for work, read English books, articles, social media etc. Also 90% of movies, videos etc I consume is English.
    It happens almost every day that I have an english conversation in my head or even dream in English.

  26. It depends on the context. I moved to Germany as a teenager, so there are certain vocabularies (for trigonometry, for example) that I only know in German. So when I’m doing math, my thoughts tend to be in German.

    It’s the same in other areas. If I’ve engaged with a subject/context more in a German-speaking environment, my thoughts related to that subject will likely be in German. The same for English.

  27. Yes. I know four language and depending on the context in my head I think in all four of them (not all at once). I know bits and bobs from other languages which I also use depending on the context.

  29. Yes definitely. I think in English a lot, for example when I’m working. I work as a programmer and programming is done in English, so I’m in English context mode and all other thoughts are in English while I’m working as well.

    I also think in Swedish sometimes when I’m out interacting with Swedish society.

    But yes mostly dreams and day to day thinking is done in my native Italian or Norwegian but also sometimes English.

  30. Yes and way too often. Especially if I’m for instance talking in Finnish about something I’ve learned in English. Might end up with consecutive sentences being in different languages and random words mixed there from other languages. You sometimes just end up having to say the word in English as you forget the counterpart. We call it Finglish.

  31. I don’t think in any language. It’s all abstract, unless I’m thinking of a particular line or phrase.

  33. Absolutely. It depends on the context of what I am doing though: if I’m about to meet with IRL friends, I think in French; if I’m playing an online video game, I think in English; if I’m riding my bicycle in the countryside, I think in Dutch; if I’m chatting with my Norwegian friend, I think in Norwegian.

    I believe it helps me to mentally prepare for situations that are about to occur, in a way.

  34. Yes, it’s really annoying, then when trying to speak in Dutch I’m always replacing certain words with English. Because I can’t remember the word in Dutch, but I can in English.

  35. I alternate thinking in English (learnt) and in Italian (native) depending on what is the way that comes more natural in the moment to express the concept I’m thinking of. In general I’d say I tend more towards Italian, but with plenty of English and dialectal terms, expressions, or structures.

    It depends on the language of context as well of course, for example, as I read the post and typed this comment I’ve been thinking in English, meanwhile interacting with text/audio in Italian would induce me to think in cleaner Italian

  36. When I went to the gealtacht (3 week long summer camp through irish) I always think in irish, even for a few days after I come home.

  38. In person I only ever speak with people in Portuguese, but online I am constantly speaking with people in English on a daily a basis, several times a day. That paired with most of the content I consume being in English leads to me thinking in both pretty interchangeably, though mostly still Portuguese

  39. I think in English exclusively, which is kind of a problem because I often forget certain Norwegian words and have to ask the person I’m talking to what the Norwegian word for f.ex handbag or steering wheel is.

  40. I often find myself thinking in english instead of french. And most of the time I can’t tell for how long it’s been going on. Makes me freak out

  41. I mix english thoughts with random spanish and japanese phrases and maybe sometimes in hungarian which is my native language.

  42. If I’m deep in thought/daydreaming it’s mostly in English (my native language).

    But every once a while after talking/writing in either Dutch or Spanish I’ll start to subconsciously think in these languages on a more superficial level, without really realizing it and then when I snap back into reality I’ll write or say a sentence in that language (instead of English) without meaning to.

    I guess it also happens with Italian which I speak almost as well as the other two, but less frequently because I speak it less frequently these days.

  44. When I’m socializing and interacting with people I mostly think in Norwegian, and when I’m by myself watching content in English I often start thinking in English as well. I think when I’m just entirely by myself with no distraction it’s just a mix.

    Something that’s kinda weird is that when I’m at school I sometimes find myself narrating my life in my head (in English), while everything else is in Norwegian. Probably too much Netflix.

  45. If I’m in a German speaking situation I think in German – I don’t need to formulate my sentences in English and translate them or mentally translate what I hear, I just understand. But I always count in English, whether out loud or in my head, and I find it impossible to swear properly in German. (I was the second generation raised speaking German abroad, and by the time I picked up any swears from my cousins my English vocabulary was much more developed…)

  46. If I spend most of my day speaking Spanish, I think in Spanish otherwise I think in my native language, English.

  47. Yes. But I was raised bilingual. I think in the language I’m currently surrounded by more.
    So for example when I’m talking to my family, I think in Slovak, when I’m watching a movie in English or scrolling through the internet or at school (I study in English), then I think in English. I feel like I think in English more than Slovak on average.

    Then I also speak French, but wasn’t raised speaking it and I sometimes think in French if I’m watching / reading something in French for a long time or when I lived in France and was surrounded by French speaking people, I thought in French more often but definitely not as often as English or Slovak.

  48. I’m bilingual but never managed to speak in English. I know the grammar, especially when writing, but when speaking I always think in my native language, which means I totally butcher most sentences, even though I know a lot of vocab.

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