What languages do the royals speak?

[Solange]

I've heard or better yet read that some people believe that Maxima doesn't speak very well dutch. That she speaks it with a spanish accent. Well spanish accents diver from wich country you are. Maxima from Argentina and their they speak spanish in a different accent than in Spain. Also they is a difference between duth and flemish. It's not that if you come from Belgium (where we speak flemish in flanders) that people from the Netherlands won't understand us. We speak in different accent. It's like comparing english spoken in te USA and english in Australia. From mine point of view Maxima speak perfect dutch, without an accent. Maybe if you have heard flemish people speak you might think that she speaks it with a heavy spanish (Spain spanish) accent. Mathilde is improven her flemish very well. She still speaks it with a french accent but at least she speaks it, understands it and so do we. I hope that my opinion doesn't come across as offensive. It is just an opinion.

[zarzuela]

Originally Posted by HMQueenElizabethII

Queen Elizabeth II can speak English and French.

True, and I have to say that her French is very good!

[Piewi]

Originally Posted by Solange

I've heard or better yet read that some people believe that Maxima doesn't speak very well dutch. That she speaks it with a spanish accent. Well spanish accents diver from wich country you are. Maxima from Argentina and their they speak spanish in a different accent than in Spain. Also they is a difference between duth and flemish. It's not that if you come from Belgium (where we speak flemish in flanders) that people from the Netherlands won't understand us. We speak in different accent. It's like comparing english spoken in te USA and english in Australia. From mine point of view Maxima speak perfect dutch, without an accent. Maybe if you have heard flemish people speak you might think that she speaks it with a heavy spanish (Spain spanish) accent. Mathilde is improven her flemish very well. She still speaks it with a french accent but at least she speaks it, understands it and so do we. I hope that my opinion doesn't come across as offensive. It is just an opinion.

I´ve never heard Maxima talk (and i don´t know dutch), but you´re right about the accents. They deliver from countries. Definitly a Spanish accent is different to a Latinoamerican, and into Latinoamerica there are difference between the accents: a colombian doesn´t speak like an argentinian. Also argentianians speak loud and with accent in the last letters.So perhaps that is what they note of her dutch
I don´t think that your opinion is offensive

[His Lordship]

I know that MC of Greece's greek is supposed to be terrible.

And someone please correct me if I an wrong, but I thought Danish and Dutch were supposed to be difficult to learn so as an American, we normally do not speak more than on language - never mind what we had to take in high school, I applaud Mary and Maxima's efforts.

[Mette2]

Originally Posted by His Lordship

Queen Margrethe speaks perferct English without an accent...It is astounding to hear her as she sounds American.

I've heard people say that Margrethe has a more British accent, and that even some British people can't tell that she's not British.
Personally I think her English is more British, and that she has an accent although it's not much. But I guess it's only a matter of opinion what people think others sound like, and that where they're from has a bearing on their opinion :).

[His Lordship]

I have heard that as well Mette2 and agree with you wholeheartedly. :)

[msfroyste]

no offense, but i beg to differ. i too live in america, and have lived in just about every region of america. depending on what region you live in, chances are, you'll probably be able to speak/understand more than one language, perhaps even two. it just depends on the cultures that live in the area and how long they've been there in that area. some examples, look at the west cost, the southwest, and the south. you'll see not only european, but asian, and african influences on the ppl that live there, including the dialects. it's what speaking "american", as some of my british friends call it, is. solange put it nicely too. anywho, back on topic. imo, henri has a pretty thick accent when speaking english, and margrethe does sound british, she threw me for a loop when i heard her speak english for the first time.

[hillary_nugent]

Prince Albert of Monaco speaks English fluently and with an American accent ^___^

[Australian]

The Danish royal family speak English with a British accent

[KikkiB]

Originally Posted by Mette2

I've heard people say that Margrethe has a more British accent, and that even some British people can't tell that she's not British.
Personally I think her English is more British, and that she has an accent although it's not much. But I guess it's only a matter of opinion what people think others sound like, and that where they're from has a bearing on their opinion :).

Queen Margrethe went to school in England, first from 1955-1956 at North Foreland Lodge Boarding school in Hampshire. Then she had one year at Cambridge and one year at LSE. So there is a logical explanation to her British accent (And in my opinion Danes have some problems when speaking English due to their glottal pronounciation, often heard in Frederiks English).

from: www.kongehuset.dk

[norwegianne]

Originally Posted by msfroyste

back on topic. imo, henri has a pretty thick accent when speaking english, and margrethe does sound british, she threw me for a loop when i heard her speak english for the first time.

I don't find it very odd that Margrethe sounds British when she speaks English. After all, she attended boarding school there for a year, and later studied at both Cambridge, and London School of Economics.

King Harald of Norway and Queen Sonja also have slight British accents, I think, after having studied in Britain.

Of course, after 5 years in exile in USA when he was a boy, Harald and his sisters's English was so American that his grandfather, who had spent the war in London, shuddered at it. It didn't help that Harald couldn't understand the King's Norwegian, which was rather mixed in with Danish, as Harald had been taught mostly a very standard form of Norwegian during the war, and so that they had to speak English together.

Originally Posted by His Lordship

And someone please correct me if I an wrong, but I thought Danish and Dutch were supposed to be difficult to learn

I don't know about Dutch, but Danish is supposed to be very difficult to most of the Western World. It is, strangely enough, supposed to be easier to learn for people knowing Chinese, as the rhythm and melody of the two languages are similar. And, let's not forget, amidst the difficulties: Danish is not spoken as it is written. At all. Half of the letters in Danish written words are never pronounced, and those that are... well, they never really sound the way you imagine that they sound... It can make it very difficult to learn.

[His Lordship]

I think to my American ears, I agree with the other person who said that Prince Albert sounds totally "American" when he speaks.

Prince Charles, for some reason, to me always seems like he stretches out the syllables in his words and is sometimes hard to understand. He sounds very POSH, as the English say, when he speaks, but that should be expected from a crown prince.

[sara1981]

Originally Posted by His Lordship

I think to my American ears, I agree with the other person who said that Prince Albert sounds totally "American" when he speaks.

Prince Charles, for some reason, to me always seems like he stretches out the syllables in his words and is sometimes hard to understand. He sounds very POSH, as the English say, when he speaks, but that should be expected from a crown prince.

i would agree with you!

Prince Charles hardly understand what to says! but i understand why!

and I like Prince Albert's sound as American how many he speaks languages?

Sara Boyce

[Elspeth]

It seems that the younger the British royals are, the less upper-class they sound. The Queen and Queen Mother have/had real cut-glass accents; Prince Charles sounds a bit more normal in his vowel sounds, and some of the younger siblings and cousins have quite a bit of Estuary English mixed in their delivery.

[His Lordship]

I would imagine that each royal speaks their native language first, then English because of the universal use of it, then usually French and German, maybe Spanish.

[Eva-Britt]

I'm also very interested in wich languages they (really!) speak. You know princess Mathilde was said to be very fluent in Dutch.. but the new generation speaks it very well, the children of princess Astrid are bilingual...

Does someone know wich languages princess Mabel speaks? She is such a wonderful lady! I read that she studied Slavic languages for her work in the Balkan but wich one does she really speaks?

[asma]

The difficult question is:which language is spoken inside each royal family?most of these families are mixed.spain RF is spanish german.Dutch RF is german,dutch and argantinian.Danish RF is danish,french,hong kong ,german.

[pollyemma]

Queen Beatix speaks Danish. As well as Dutch (duh) and english. Does anyone know what else she speaks?

[Eva-Britt]

Beatrix can also speak French

[EmpressRouge]

I've heard that Felipe speaks great Catalan but does not speak it in public.