⁹ So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. ¹⁰ Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. ¹¹ If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me.^{(A) 12} So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit,^(B) try to excel in those that build up^(C) the church.

¹³ For this reason the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say.^{(D) 14} For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays,^(E) but my mind is unfruitful. ¹⁵ So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit,^(F) but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing^(G) with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. ¹⁶ Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer,^[a] say “Amen”^(H) to your thanksgiving,^(I) since they do not know what you are saying? ¹⁷ You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified.^(J)