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In a list, does 'counting from' an item includes the item itself?

English Language & Usage Asked by Otter on February 7, 2021

I googled this up and although I found references to counting in general, not even one specifically answering this question.

The reason I ask is because my Adobe PDF Printer is mysteriously gone. I followed some instructions in Adobe’s website on how to recover it, and at some point I’m faced with a list of printer drivers, all named exactly the same.
At that point, the instructions say:

You see many Adobe PDF Converters on the list. Count six down from the top and select the printer.

I became a little confused, as I realised I simply don’t know (duh!, how dumb) if counting from includes or skips the 1st item.

Turns out I tried skipping or including it and none worked, so I used another PDF software altogether.
Still I think something can be learnt from this.

One Answer

For me "counting six down from the top" would imply choosing the sixth item on the list since the first item "is at the top" of the list rather than "forms" the top of the list. In other words the list, in one sense, has existence independently of the items in it and if the items are reordered or the first item is deleted the top of the list is still in the same place but a different item occupies that position.

In this sense it is like a queue for a checkout where the head of the queue is always in the same place but the person at the head of the queue keeps changing as customers are served.

Having said that there is some ambiguity in the instruction and I would have preferred them to say "select the sixth item on the list" which has only one possible interpretation.

Answered by BoldBen on February 7, 2021

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