Ten Green Bottles

For the Vivian Jeanette Kaplan novel, see Ten Green Bottles (book).

"Ten Green Bottles"
Nursery rhyme
Published	Unknown

"Ten Green Bottles" is a popular children's repetitive song that consists of a single verse of music that is repeated, with each verse decrementing by one the number of bottles on the wall. The song appears in The Oxford Song Book as early as 1928 where it's mentioned as a "traditional North country song." ^[1]

Lyrics

Green bottles on a window sill

Ten green bottles hanging on the wall,
Ten green bottles hanging on the wall,
And if one green bottle should accidentally fall,
There'll be nine green bottles hanging on the wall.

This pattern continues until the number of bottles reaches zero. The final verse ends "There'll be no green bottles hanging on the wall." ^[2]

Variant

Another children's song, "Ten Fat Sausages", follows the same structure, but with each verse decrementing by two the number of sausages in the pan. ^[3]

Ten fat sausages sizzling in a pan
Ten fat sausages sizzling in a pan
One went ‘pop’ and the other went ‘bang’
Now there’s eight fat sausages sizzling in a pan.

See also

• Repetitive song
• "99 Bottles of Beer"
• "Ten German Bombers"
• "Ten Little Injuns"

References

1. Percy Carter Buck (1928). The Oxford Song Book. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. p. 94.
2. "Ten Green Bottles". BBC Teach. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
3. "Ten Fat Sausages". BBC Teach. Retrieved 20 November 2023.