Well, I think in whatever language comes to mind at the time. I speak Greek and Bulgarian natively and of course I had to learn English. I think in all 3 of them, tbh.

Goddammit. I think in Finnish almost always (it's my native language) but reading the name of this thread made me think in English.

Off-topic: Is it correct to say 'native language' or 'native tongue', because AFAIK the latter is wrong but I see it used a lot. I'd rather not make a mistake here so if someone could clear up this one for me, I'd be grateful.

Yeah I notice that too sometimes, it's SO annoying!

I travel a lot (usually spent my summers in Jordan) and speaking Arabic aloud after long periods of not doing so feels strange at first. Nowadays it's the exact opposite, I've been studying in Jordan (University) for the past few years and it's pretty rare that I can actually have a real conversation with someone in english.

So the school year was over and it was summer time, time to go home for a nice long vaca. I arrive home and meet my friends the very next day... I couldn't believe how hard it had gotten for me to recall words/expressions and assemble proper sentences in real-time after all that time away. That first minute of the conversation was kinda awkward but then things started going more smoothly, I wasn't sure if anyone noticed but it was a pretty funny moment for me

And I know what you mean about expressing things in different languages, I often find expressions/concepts that are impossible to translate from one language to the other. That's probably that best thing about knowing more than one language (besides being able to communicate with a ton more people :p), the freedom to express yourself in different ways feels great :)

I think many people think that way.

I mean, do you really need to think of all the words when you know what you're feeling? I know what I think and feel, if I'm hungry I know it and I get some food but I don't think 'Boy, I sure am hungry!' like that. Same with every other feeling or thought, I know it, no need to actually think of a whole sentence in my brain.

I'm actually surprised so many people do that after reading this thread.

Frankly, I think the people who are saying they think purely without words are full of shit. But that's just me.

The example of food Trollwhisperer provided above is true, and I'm sure there are many other instances of thinking with "feelings". But don't tell me, someone who speaks several languages doesn't have words going through their minds when they're working through their thoughts. That's absurd.

In my personal opinion, that would only be true if you were living by yourself on an island your whole life. If anything, the formation of words and languages helped develop cognitive abilities throughout history. Ever heard of constructivism in education? The idea of constructivism is pretty big in schools these days and it's basically the concept of how we build on past knowledge to increase our learning skills ... mainly thinking.

You're right, it's definitely just you.

Don't believe me, but it's 100% true. I really only think with words when I read or write those words. Why would I and several other people be lying?

I can easily find a few discussions online about this and you'll find many people think in concepts:

http://intjforum.com/showthread.php?t=24280

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=844786

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8gu1p/do_you_think_in_words/

http://able2know.org/topic/175479-1

Edit: Actually, I'm gonna ask you: what do you tell yourself? In what situations do you think in words? Can you give me examples? I'm curious about this.

I think in both languages depending on the subject, situation and my mood.

I know five languages, in three of which I can hold a conversation pretty easily, yet I don't think in anything but English unless I try to. I suppose that must be because English is my second-language-that-I-know-as-well-as-my-mothertongue and because I'm exposed to it a lot in school, media and stuff.