Do multilingual speakers forget words more often?

Question

How many languages ​​do you understand? I speak English, Chinese, Hokkien, Indonesian, Javanese. And sometimes i forget words in all languages i speak. Do you also have the same experiance? Does that happen to you?

Oncewildtwiceburned · Accepted Answer

It seems trad-family, capitalism, and classism has favored you. You must know how to play the piano, swim, martial arts, ride a horse, trap shoot, and archery or some other niche leisure activity reserved for the rich of your region as well.

My dad speaks Latin, Italian, Spanish, and some Czech and Greek. He went to an expensive boarding school. I lived a more rebellious life I suppose.

Telekinetic-Potato · Accepted Answer

I'm intermediate at Spanish and I forget words all the time because I don't get to speak it much. But what's weird is I'm still getting better at communicating than when I knew more words.

Plus I got really good at being like "how do you say..." And then pantomimeing whatever I forgot how to say 😂

Taniisokay · Accepted Answer

I speak 5 languages, sometimes i forget about some words in Arabic language as i rare use Arabic language nowadays. However for French language and other languages I don't forget.

Nikki1989 · Accepted Answer

English but enough Dutch, Spanish, and German to hold a conversation, but only just.

LiamJHayden · Answer

My neighbor speaks English, Spanish, Yiddish, Italian, and Greek and sometimes her conversations mix. I can usually follow the Spanish and Italian and some of the Greek, but when the Yiddish starts I am lost. Now sure if she forgets specific words in all languages, but I think she does this when she cannot think of the English word (s).

JustinTheGreat · Answer

I only speak one language unfortunately lol

however I do have a lot of coworkers who speak Spanish. I always ask them “how do you say this. How do you say that” and they don’t always remember the Spanish words for certain things.

or I’ll ask two different people and they give me two different answers

thearchjoker · Answer

That is where the magic of translation apps come in as i often remember the word just in the wrong language and once you translate it ta-da! you remember again

NathanDavis · Answer

I only speak two, and yes... I sometimes forget how to say a certain word on either language, lol

but that's a temporary thing... and that's just your brain currently having one alley to go down to find such image (concept) in your head

KostasKouvalis · Answer

OMG, YES! My dad will often randomly stick Polish words in the middle of her sentences and my mom will stick English words in the middle of her Polish sentences😂

Juxtapose · Answer

I am monolingual but good for you in knowing all these languages.

MrGSpotHer · Answer

I only speak one but I know people who speak a few and they use words from different languages by mistake very confusing 😆

Anonymous · Answer

Apakah Anda benar-benar mengharapkan kami percaya bahwa Anda bisa berbicara semua bahasa ini?

Unap0logetic_ · Answer

Yes I forget words all of the time and I’ll say them in the other language.

Raxll11 · Answer

I am sure that those who learn 7 or more languages ​​will encounter such a problem

Aakash_Hangargi · Answer

Those neuron receptors get over charged and that happens quite common 😄.

Daphne96 · Answer

Two Greek and English. At time or I forgot i’m speaking English to those who don’t understand it and at times I flip it.

Babygirl_S · Answer

I only speak English and Hindi and don’t face such problems.

Anonymous · Answer

Probably, it's not easy to remember every word all the time.

power_wolf · Answer

English, some french, mandarin

Agape93 · Answer

Sometimes and that's pretty normal

Bklynbadboy12 · Answer

Im impressed

Radiate143 · Answer

Yes. We do.

Walksbehindtherows · Answer

Elvish

Do multilingual speakers forget words more often?

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