if i were to express how i think, like low level school problems or imaginative exercises (imagining physical objects , fantasizing/remembering sensations, gaming logic) occurs completely silently, more like vague shape-like or action-reaction-type thingies (?best words i can describe them), i don't catch single words related to that. I do catch snippets of vocalized ideas if i start to focus more on something, and if i have to think from multiple sides or harder problem, i definitely start to symbolize/inner-vocalize ideas in some sense, cause if i don't - they just flee from memory without trace, so for me inner-language is like freezing something intangible inside the mind to have time to "look" at it. (also multiple languages play funny stuff with inner monologue, so that's why i'm sympathetic to idea i'm translating from some kind of inner thought language into real language, instead of real (first) language being primary)

*as a point of interest, do you speak 1 language or more? because i definitely don't run word to word translations when i speak (fluently, shittily known languages definitely stall out in inner monologue of "fuck, que la worda for la chaise" mini-panic), it's kinda self-obvious to me (not so much in written language, where i can sense reading/writing thoughts expressed explicitly in words)