# One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Once I Caught a Fish Alive

“One, Two, Three, Four, Five” is an English-language counting rhyme whose familiar fish verse turns the numbers one to ten into a question-and-answer story.

## At a glance

| | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | Unknown |
| Sung in | English |
| Words by | Traditional |
| First known | Fish-and-finger forms collected in Pennsylvania and Ohio, printed 1888 |
| Best for ages | 2–6 |
| Mood | counting, educational, playful, traditional |
| Page | https://littlesongbook.com/songs/one-two-three-four-five/ |

## Lyrics

### Verse 1 (en)

One, two, three, four, five,
Once I caught a fish alive.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Then I let it go again.

Why did you let it go?
Because it bit my finger so.
Which finger did it bite?
This little finger on my right.

## How to sing it

1. Begin slowly so everyone can hear the repeated words and the action cue.
2. Hold up one finger for each number, mime catching and releasing the fish, then point to the little finger on the right.
3. Repeat the song once and invite a different child to lead the cues.

## Common questions

**Is the fish verse the oldest form of One, Two, Three, Four, Five?**

No single source was found for the complete familiar wording. Henry Carrington Bolton printed two fish-and-finger variants in 1888 — one from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that stops at the bitten finger, and one from Ohio that adds the question of which finger and the answer “the little finger on the right” — alongside a related counting-out form about catching a hare, so this page labels its text as a composite.

**Why does the rhyme end with the little finger on the right?**

The final question asks which finger the fish bit, and the answer identifies the right little finger. Pointing to it gives the question-and-answer rhyme a clear final gesture and connects counting with a body-part word.

## Sources

- [Henry Carrington Bolton — The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children (1888)](https://archive.org/details/countingoutrhyme00bolt)
- [University of South Florida Lit2Go — modern fish-and-finger text](https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/66/counting-and-math-rhymes/4816/one-two-three-four-five/)
- [Project Gutenberg — Mother Goose (1915), older hare version](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/24623/pg24623-images.html)