How well can you communicate with a summoned small earth elemental?

[Banaticus]

How well can you communicate with a summoned small earth elemental? Yes, it speaks/understands Terran, but what if you don't? Obviously, you can point to something and somehow communicate "attack", but what else can you communicate and how complicated can you get with its Int of 4?

[Killer Angel]

Usually you don't need to communicate "attack". THat's its normal action, when summoned.
If you want it to do other things, usually Tongue (or similar) is the way to go.

The low int is only a limit to the complexity of instructions you can give.

[Lokd0wn]

Don't forget that Terran uses the Dwarven alphabet so I'd say it's reasonable that you could convey basic instructions if you only knew something like Dwarven or Gnomish.

[TiaC]

Don't forget that Terran uses the Dwarven alphabet so I'd say it's reasonable that you could convey basic instructions if you only knew something like Dwarven or Gnomish.

I wouldn't think so, Spanish uses the same alphabet as English, but the languages aren't even in the same family.

[Zweisteine]

There is a 0-level spell that let's you speak infernal. It wouldn't be unreasonable to have one for Terran as well.

[Grek]

A small earth elemental is smarter than an elephant, but stupider than an ogre. If you point at something and pound your fist into your palm, it will probably figure out that you want it crushed, but for actual nuanced conversation, you need to actually speak Terran.

[Phelix-Mu]

It may also be significant to note that, while the spell obligates the summons to fight, it doesn't obligate it to do other stuff that isn't actually communicated. If the caster is vague or non-specific, I imagine the summons may (and I stress "may") opt to misinterpret stuff or ignore the caster. The DM would do well not to overuse or abuse this, though, since it is likely to get on the player's nerves. But if the character is trying to use charades to get the dumb elemental to do something, and the spell says that additional orders may be given if one can speak to it, then the elemental is not obligated to understand the charades.

Remember, the elemental isn't your friend. It's your slave, and it's unlikely to do anything not made explicit by the spell.