What Languages Do The Royals Speak?

[sancakli70]

-MEMber of the ottoman imperial family is difficult, only a few can speak turkish mostly they speak french or english some arab
- on the video of prince rashid of jordandms wedding speak the 4year old daughter of prince hashim english, did they mean that she can not speak arab or that her first language is english ?

 

[Prinsessan]

Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, as reported here, speak French very well. Their children, Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward all speak, at the very least, passable French.

This is because of the BRFs (includes the Queen Mother) strong ties to Canada - which has 2 official languages, English and French.

It's likely that the Queen has 'strongly encouraged' all of her grandchildren to have a real grounding in French as well - William spoke it passably during the 2011 tour of Canada. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs2YfA1D4ns

Honestly I don't think William "spoke French quite passably" in this video, he read most of it from his notes and has a strong accent.

Here's a video of Willem-Alexander speaking some German and Maxima speaking English.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZtA7sr-CDw

 

[miche]

He also read his speech in English from a note, most of the BRF do.

 

[NGalitzine]

With Charles and Anne the fact that they speak French has nothing to do with the association with Canada but the fact that at the time they were at school all well-educated children learnt French. Andrew also certainly studied French at school.

I had a friend, in the mid-70s, who spent the first three years of her high school life at school in the UK and she told us that French was a compulsory subject in English schools at the time - she had been studying it for 7 years when she arrived to join us who had been studying it only for 2 and she was probably better than our teacher in many ways. As the Queen's children overlaps mine due to me being agewise between Anne and Andrew I believe that they would have studied it at school because they had to do so.

Actually there is a Canadian connection. HM used to bring young officers from the Royal 2nd Regiment, aka the Van Doos, a famous French Canadian army regiment over to Balmoral to spend time with her children and teach them French.

 

[blauerengel]

Here's a video of Willem-Alexander speaking some German and Maxima speaking English.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZtA7sr-CDw

OMG,I didn´t know that Willem-Alexander speaks German!He could easily pass as a national, he has no accent,good pronounciation and a nice voice!
Maxima is also gifted for language and obviously well-trained,I have read that the school she went to was emphasizing foreign languages and encouraged the students to learn the languages well!Congratulations to both of them,hopefully they will pass on their language talent to their daughters

 

[ANNIE_S]

I think I´ve said this before, but I like W-A voice very much. It´s...sexy

 

[Avicenna]

OMG,I didn´t know that Willem-Alexander speaks German!He could easily pass as a national, he has no accent,good pronounciation and a nice voice!
...

Well, he had a German father and probably some other relatives, too. Plus Germany is a neighbour of the Netherlands. Therefor it would have surprised me, if he hadn't picked it up.

 

[Avicenna]

Monaco:
Albert: English, French, German, Italian and lang moneguse
Jazmin, Albert's oldest child: English, French?, Fijian?
Alexandre, Albert's oldest son: French, English?
Caroline: English, French, Italian, German & Spanish
Andrea: English, French, Italian, some German,possibly Spanish/Portuguse as well (Santo Domingo/Dellal influence)
Charlotte: French, English, shy in Italian, some german, possibly Spanish/Portuguse as well (Santo Domingo/Dellal influence)
Pierre: French, Italian, English, some German, possibly Spanish/Portuguse as well (Santo Domingo/Dellal influence)
Alexandra: French, English, German, and is likely learning Spanish, Italian or Moneguse in school
Stephanie: English, French, Italian
Louis: French, English, Italian
Pauline: French, English, maybe Italian
Camille: French, English, and learning either German, Italian or Spanish in school
Christian de Massy: French, English, Spanish?
Cecile de Massy: French, English
Keith-Sebastien Knecht de Massy: French, English, Italian
Donatella Knecht de Massy: French, English, Italian
Christine Knecht de Massy: French, English, Italian, and learning either German, Italian or Spanish in school
Alexia Knecht de Massy: French, English, Italian, and learning either German, Italian or Spanish in school
Vittoria Knecht de Massy: French, English, Italian, and learning either German, Italian or Spanish in school
Andrea Knecht de Massy: French, English, Italian, and learning either German, Italian or Spanish in school
Brice de Massy: French, english
Antoine de Massy: French, English
Leticia de Massy: French, English, Spanish, Dutch (her husband's dutch)?
Elisabeth-Anne de Massy: French, English
Jean-Leonard taubert-natta de massy: French, English, German?, Italian?
Melanie-Antoinette de Massy: French, English

I am suprised that neither Stephanie nor Louis or Pauline speaks German. After all they spent some time in Switzerland and even though Louis and Pauline attended the French Lycée in Zürich, I would have assumed they learned at least a bit German, too, simply by living there.

 

[Frelinghighness]

I agree with Prinsessan that William did not speak French passably, his accent and prononciations were truly beginner.
Both WA and Maxima have lovely voices. Obviously, he had a German father, and she spent many years working in the US before studying at multi lingual schools.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

I am pretty sure that Albert of Monaco is fluent in Spanish. One of Grace's biographers wrote that one of Albert's girlfriends spoke of Albert taking a business call while they were in bed togetherohmy:!) and he conducted the entire conversation in perfect Spanish.

I am surprised that Prince William's French is so rudimentary.His father Prince Charles speaks the language flawlessly, with virtually no accent.

 

[kathia_sophia]

Elisabeth, Gabriel, Emmmanuel, Eleonore of Belgium speak French, Flemish (Dutch) and are learning English.
Christian, Isabella, Vincent, Josephine of Denmark speak Danish, English and are probably learning French.
Amalia, Alexia, Ariane of The Netherlands speak Dutch, Spanish and English.
Aiko and cousins Mako, Kako, Hisahito of Japan speak Japanese and English.
Moulay Hassan, Lalla Khadija of Morrocco speak Arabic, French and English.
Ingrid Alexandra, Sverre Magnus of Norway speak Norwegian and English.
Estelle of Sweden speaks now Swedish and will learn English.
Leonor, Sofia of Spain speak Spanish, English and are learning Chinese Mandarin.

Now,..how,many languages does any of you speak...without a fat accent that is..?..

Besides my mother tongue portuguese, I speak English but with portuguese accent, I speak Spanish but my accent changes when I speak only with spanish people and start to think in spanish, but when I don't speak spanish in a while, my accent when I try to speak it again is terrible, weird isn't it? I think my mind and tongue needs to adapt first it seems. Besides those three languages, I speak Japanese without any accent and I'm learning Korean, it's hard, but I'm gradually taking away my accent.
I learnt French at school, but I'm not great with that language because I dislike it, but I can understand it overall. The same applies to chinese, I didn't like the language so I dropped my chinese mandarin classes.

Italian is a beautiful language, I once tried to learn, but I dropped it because it clashes with my spanish and it confuses me.

Languages I would like to speak or I'm interested in is Arabic and the Scandinavian languages. But Korean takes priority now.

 

[christythedreamer]

The kids are so talented but I find it interesting that only the infantas are learning Chinese since there has been an increasing number of foreigners learning that language for different reasons and its getting more popular lol

 

[carlota]

here's a video from about a year ago where we can hear letizia speaking in english.

Princess Letizia of Spain: highlights the "commitment" of Spain in the fight against cancer. - YouTube

 

[USCtrojan]

The kids are so talented but I find it interesting that only the infantas are learning Chinese since there has been an increasing number of foreigners learning that language for different reasons and its getting more popular lol

I too find this interesting! Good choice as far as I am concerned.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

Sometime ago I found those videos of The Queen of Sweden talking in portuguese. Her Majesty spent a part of her childhood living in Brazil, and her mother was brazilian.

Rainha Suécia (18/05/11) - YouTube

Rainha Sílvia da Suécia visita projeto social no Brasil - YouTube

Her Majesty speaks portuguese very well!

Queen Silvia is a polyglot who was working as an interpreter at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich when she met Carl-Gustaf. I think she speaks at least 6 languages fluently and flawlessly.

I am surprised and pleased to see CP Letizia speaking English. At the time of her wedding I read that she only spoke Spanish.

 

[MARG]

I know that she's not a royal yet, but Countess Stephanie de Lannoy speaks Russian.

A pre-wedding interview with HGD Guillaume and Stéphanie from ZDF, in German.
ZDF Mediathek

Their German is very good, both speak fluently and have a cute (noticeable but not strong) accent . . . I think she's had an interesting career/development, speaking several languages and all.

OK we have her speaking fluent Dutch, French, Luxembourgish and German and possibly conversational English and Russian since we are told she speaks 5 languages.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

Stephanie was very pointedly asked at the announcement of her engagement if she spoke Dutch and she indicated that she was not fluent, but had a basic knowledge of the language from her primary school years when she attended a Dutch speaking school.

I think she has a grasp of conversational Russian but is not fluent.

She is fluent in German, English and of course French. She understands Luxembourgish very well but I've no idea if she has become fluent yet.

Princess Claire speaks German, Spanish, Italian, French and English.

 

[Valerie Rose]

Delightful to hear Princess Letizia speaking in English, and what a beautiful quality of speaking-voice she has.
Fluency in other languages is something I admire very much!

 

[Moonmaiden23]

Charles Prince of Wales speaks better than passable French. He speaks flawless French with virtually no accent whatsoever. When he went to Paris in August 1997 to accompany Diana's body back to England, he spent almost an hour conferring with the ER physicians who had treated her at the hospital and they were astonished at his perfect command of their language. The same thing happened during a State dinner at the Elysee Palace a couple of years ago. Naturally the French were delighted.

He also speaks faultless German.

 

[fandesacs2003]

I know that both QEII and the Prince of Wales speek very good french. Any video pls? There is a video in this thread with QEII speaking french, but i can't open it.
Furthermore i was not impressed by William's french. Is his 1st foreign language? If yes, it is bad, sorry. I come from a country, where every middle class child learns 2 foreign languages, and with english being the first one, their performance is much better than William's french. We are talking about a future heir!
Of course if W speaks other foreign languages better than french, i take back what I said.

 

[blauerengel]

Charles Prince of Wales speaks better than passable French. He speaks flawless French with virtually no accent whatsoever. When he went to Paris in August 1997 to accompany Diana's body back to England, he spent almost an hour conferring with the ER physicians who had treated her at the hospital and they were astonished at his perfect command of their language. The same thing happened during a State dinner at the Elysee Palace a couple of years ago. Naturally the French were delighted.

He also speaks faultless German.

Prince Charles command of German is "good", but not faultless. He certainly has a talent for learning foreign languages and speaks very well,but he does have a bit of an accent when he speaks German.
Nevertheless I am glad that he has chosen to learn German because it is not so popular like French or Spanish. I am really excited whenever I hear about a royal who has taken the time to learn German because many people tell me it is quite a difficult language to learn unless you grow up with it;-)

CP Victoria of Sweden is very good in German, she has probably been taught by her mother! In a recent interview Princesse Madeleine has told the reporter that she often speaks German with her husband when they like to talk private matters. I would guess that Carl-Philip is also speaking German like his sisters,but I do not have a source to back it up

 

[Sarahbellar]

Prince Charles command of German is "good", but not faultless. He certainly has a talent for learning foreign languages and speaks very well,but he does have a bit of an accent when he speaks German.
Nevertheless I am glad that he has chosen to learn German because it is not so popular like French or Spanish. I am really excited whenever I hear about a royal who has taken the time to learn German because many people tell me it is quite a difficult language to learn unless you grow up with it;-)

CP Victoria of Sweden is very good in German, she has probably been taught by her mother! In a recent interview Princesse Madeleine has told the reporter that she often speaks German with her husband when they like to talk private matters. I would guess that Carl-Philip is also speaking German like his sisters,but I do not have a source to back it up

There was an interview once where Q Silvia said that Victoria has the best German out of the children but they all speak it. I am not sure when or where this interview was but I know I have read it.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

Prince Charles command of German is "good", but not faultless. He certainly has a talent for learning foreign languages and speaks very well,but he does have a bit of an accent when he speaks German.
Nevertheless I am glad that he has chosen to learn German because it is not so popular like French or Spanish. I am really excited whenever I hear about a royal who has taken the time to learn German because many people tell me it is quite a difficult language to learn unless you grow up with it;-)

CP Victoria of Sweden is very good in German, she has probably been taught by her mother! In a recent interview Princesse Madeleine has told the reporter that she often speaks German with her husband when they like to talk private matters. I would guess that Carl-Philip is also speaking German like his sisters,but I do not have a source to back it up

What I found most confusing about German in school was having to capitalize nouns that are not normally capitalized in English. Other than that I didn't find it that difficult at all. Just remember DER, DIE, DAS and you will be okay. I received a grade "B".

It's a beautiful language when you are accustomed to hearing it.

 

[fandesacs2003]

Delightful to hear Princess Letizia speaking in English, and what a beautiful quality of speaking-voice she has.
Fluency in other languages is something I admire very much!

I do not think that Letizia is fluent in English, she is learning it, with "good diction" courses. Her prononciation is OK, but words get not naturally out of her mouth, she worked on the text she is reading (it was her job...).
For example, when you heat QEII in french, you understand that she "controls' the language, despite her slight accent, but Letizia in English does not "control" the language.

In order to realize if someone is fluent in a language we should hear him speak naturally, not just reading a text.

 

[christythedreamer]

here's a video from about a year ago where we can hear letizia speaking in english.

Princess Letizia of Spain: highlights the "commitment" of Spain in the fight against cancer. - YouTube

It's clear that Letizia doesn't speak perfect English and has a slight accent... but she is really good already lovely voice too

 

[Daria_S]

Furthermore i was not impressed by William's french. Is his 1st foreign language? If yes, it is bad, sorry. I come from a country, where every middle class child learns 2 foreign languages, and with english being the first one, their performance is much better than William's french. We are talking about a future heir!
Of course if W speaks other foreign languages better than french, i take back what I said.

I wasn't impressed with William's French either. I have a very good friend who majored in French in university, and she speaks like a native, so I've been pretty spoiled in that regard. When I heard William speaking this language, I wanted to close my ears. I remember reading that he studied French when in school (not sure for how many years), but I have a feeling he didn't have too much practice. He also seems to know at least a little bit of Spanish, because when he spent part of his Gap Year in Chile, he worked with children who spoke nothing but Spanish. From the clips that I saw, he did pretty well.

 

[Lenora]

I think many royals speak some foreign languages at a good speaking level, either not having enough practice or skills. Maybe they disregard some languages as they don't use them in everyday life.

I've mentioned that those who master several lanuage come from bilingual families or have an appropriate linguistic education. That is the case of members of Monaco princely family, Queen Silvia of Sweden and her children.

Anyway I wonder why some have problems while learning French.

 

[Valerie Rose]

Delightful to hear Princess Letizia speaking in English, and what a beautiful quality of speaking-voice she has.
Fluency in other languages is something I admire very much!

I think my post at #408 above may have been misunderstood:
I meant that I enjoyed hearing the Princess speak in English,
that I find her voice pleasant to listen to,
and I admire those who are fluent in other languages:
I'm not qualified to offer an opinion on the Princess' fluency or otherwise and did not mean to

 

[fortimo]

Maxima's french (from 2'48):
CGAP : Atelier sur la finance responsable - YouTube

Maxima's spanish (from 3'35):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg51VWq6ow4

 

[carlota]

the princess of thailand, speaking in french while visiting switzerland.

HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn's Speech in French - YouTube