What Languages Do The Royals Speak?

[Moonmaiden23]

Queen Maxima seems a highly intelligent, very impressive woman.

[carlota]

this blog has a video of the wedding of felix and claire of luxembourg where you can hear felix speaking in german and claire speaking in french, at about minute 30.

claire's french doesn't seem to be as good as her english but it seems like she can manage to understand it and read it well.

you can also hear princess alexandra speaking in spanish at about minute 39.

Royalement Blog: Le mariage du prince Félix

[LadyFinn]

Victoria speaking german (short video) in Dusseldorf, starts at 1.00
Leute heute vom 29.1.2014 - Leute heute - ZDFmediathek - ZDF Mediathek

[Marty91charmed]

I would like to know if some royals are bilingual. I really think that having two parents with different languages is a gift but I was very disappointed that thier children don't speak fluent both languages. As far as I know only Princess Grace's children are bilingual!
Caroline's kids do not seem to speak Italians as good as french (I give them a green light since they lost their father very young) but: do queen silvia of sweden's offsprings speak german? What about Maxima's daughters? They should speak spanish as well as dutch IMO. Same for the belgians...
If somene can aswer i would be really grateful! :-)

[JR76]

Originally Posted by Marty91charmed

I would like to know if some royals are bilingual. I really think that having two parents with different languages is a gift but I was very disappointed that thier children don't speak fluent both languages. As far as I know only Princess Grace's children are bilingual!
Caroline's kids do not seem to speak Italians as good as french (I give them a green light since they lost their father very young) but: do queen silvia of sweden's offsprings speak german? What about Maxima's daughters? They should speak spanish as well as dutch IMO. Same for the belgians...
If somene can aswer i would be really grateful! :-)

Princess Madeleine said in an interview that she and Chris spoke German to each other when they didn't want people to understand what they're saying so I guess she must be fairly good at it. When Crown princess Viktoria and Daniel visited Germany earlier this year I noticed in a video clip that she spoke German to children but English to adults so maybe she's not so confident when speaking the language?

[SLV]

Originally Posted by Marty91charmed

I would like to know if some royals are bilingual. What about Maxima's daughters? They should speak spanish as well as dutch IMO. Same for the belgians...
If somene can aswer i would be really grateful! :-)

The Dutch princesses apparently speak Dutch, English and Spanish.

[Livia]

(five-days-to-be-Queen) Letizia has a very good english and she didn't learn it after her marriage with Felipe, she had to speak english before because she was TVE's foreign correspondent: US (New York and Washington), Irak ... when she married Felipe I read somewhere she was taking english classes, but for speak a formal english, I imagine this means diplomatic vocabulary. She also speaks english at home because Queen Sofía speaks english in private, and Leonor and Sofía have a brittish nanny.

It's her second language so do not expect a perfect pronuntiation specially if your first one is spanish.

[Meraude]

Originally Posted by JR76

Princess Madeleine said in an interview that she and Chris spoke German to each other when they didn't want people to understand what they're saying so I guess she must be fairly good at it. When Crown princess Viktoria and Daniel visited Germany earlier this year I noticed in a video clip that she spoke German to children but English to adults so maybe she's not so confident when speaking the language?

As the Swedish royals have a bunch of German-speaking cousins, both Sommerlaths, Hohenzollerns and Bernadottes of Mainau they have probably had many opportunities to train their German. As for Victoria speaking English in Germany, did she answer questions asked in German with English or did the adults speak with her in English? If the adults spoke with her in English it would be rude of her to answer in German.

[TLLK]

Originally Posted by chuchu

His English is more than just fine. It is excellent.

I agree. He does have an accent, but otherwise his pronunciation is very good.

[LadyFinn]

Queen Letizia speaking some english today, starts at 0.43.
Doña Letizia, la 'Reina Felicidad': 'Me puede llamar así, ¡suena muy bien!'

About Victoria speaking german in Germany in January, the swedish reporters told that she spoke german with the children and english with the adults. Victoria has herself always said that she doesn't speak german very well, but the german royal journalist Norbert Loh claims that Victoria speaks very good german. During their visit to Germany Victoria held one of her four speeches in german and one half german, half english
Professor Herman Lindqvist, who has written a book of Victoria and has taught both Victoria and Madeleine, said in 2010 about the royal family speaking german:
King Carl Gustaf had a German mother, Princess Sibylla, but she spoke english with her husband before she learned to speak swedish well. Queen Silvia is German, she spoke also english with the king before she learned swedish. Victoria is the best in german of the family (after the queen of course), but none of the members of the family speak german really well. Right from Gustav VI Adolf days english has had the top status. Princess Birgitta is the one who speaks german best, she has also lived in Germany for many years, and is married to a German.
Hur ser kungafamiljens tyskakunskaper ut « Hermans Hörna

[Duke of Marmalade]

I didnt know about Victoria's german until I saw a video when she came to Berlin a couple of years ago and I was shocked how bad it was, given her mother is german. I thought that Silvia has raised her children bilingual what would come natural, unless Silvia considers herself more brazilian native than german, I have no clue about that.

Maybe she does, because when she speaks german, it sounds very weird, one can tell that she doesnt speak too much german with germans anymore.

Does anyone know about Silvia's portuguese or if Victoria speaks portuguese?

[Marty91charmed]

Being bilingual qould be such a natural asset! I'm surprised that only the monegasque family seems really bilingual! The other royals with foreign parents (netherland, belgium, luxembourg, sweden etc) seem to speak a second language... I don't know about the danish: do Fred and Joachim speak a fluent French?

[Tilia C.]

Originally Posted by Meraude

As the Swedish royals have a bunch of German-speaking cousins, both Sommerlaths, Hohenzollerns and Bernadottes of Mainau they have probably had many opportunities to train their German. As for Victoria speaking English in Germany, did she answer questions asked in German with English or did the adults speak with her in English? If the adults spoke with her in English it would be rude of her to answer in German.

Afaic the Bernadottes of Mainau speek Swedish. Countess Bettina spoke once spoke about it in an interview, also telling how she loves to spend time Sweden and travels there regularly.

I don't know if Princess Birgitta raised her kids bilingual.

[Tilia C.]

Originally Posted by Marty91charmed

Being bilingual qould be such a natural asset! I'm surprised that only the monegasque family seems really bilingual! The other royals with foreign parents (netherland, belgium, luxembourg, sweden etc) seem to speak a second language... I don't know about the danish: do Fred and Joachim speak a fluent French?

I believe that one of the problems with Prince Henrik's Danish was, that they spoke mainly French in the family. That would mean that Fred and Joachim must be bilingual. But at the time of Joachim's engagement, he told in an interview how he first was drawn to Marie, because she was the only French speaking person at the event where thy met. And he acknoledged, that he was probably more into francophile than his older brother.


On another note: Is it true that Prince William's French is rather poor? French is one of the official languages in Canada, so it would be important that he speaks it reasonably well, imo.

[Marty91charmed]

Originally Posted by Tilia C.

I believe that one of the problems with Prince Henrik's Danish was, that they spoke mainly French in the family. That would mean that Fred and Joachim must be bilingual. But at the time of Joachim's engagement, he told in an interview how he first was drawn to Marie, because she was the only French speaking person at the event where thy met. And he acknoledged, that he was probably more into francophile than his older brother.


On another note: Is it true that Prince William's French is rather poor? French is one of the official languages in Canada, so it would be important that he speaks it reasonably well, imo.

Thank you I've only listened to a video about William speaking French and it was during his tour in Canada with Kate... I don't speak french but I can understand it if it is spoken quite slow... I had the impression that William didn't speak it very well... But maybe someone who knows something more about it can correct me... By the way: the english royal family doesn'nt speak more that one foreign language right? I only hear about the queen and children soeaking french... (the queen speak it quite goo IMO)

[LadyFinn]

Originally Posted by Tilia C.

Afaic the Bernadottes of Mainau speek Swedish. Countess Bettina spoke once spoke about it in an interview, also telling how she loves to spend time Sweden and travels there regularly.

I don't know if Princess Birgitta raised her kids bilingual.

Of course the Bernadotte af Wisborgs in Mainau speak german, since they live there and have a business there.

[Tilia C.]

Originally Posted by LadyFinn

Of course the Bernadotte af Wisborgs in Mainau speak german, since they live there and have a business there.

Sorry for not being clear. I meant to say that they speak Swedish, too. They are bilingual.

[carlota]

victoria, madeleine and carl philip speaking in english, particularly victoria has a noticeable american accent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc1EN20hZ9Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F58hY3wJ_Fo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsBs9_jAh7M

[Winnie]

Victoria, Madeleine and Carl Philip all speak English extremely well. Heard absolutely no Swedish accent. They must have had an American tutor from one of the North Eastern States as a Southern or Western accent is altogether different especially while pronouncing certain words.

[Sarahbellar]

Originally Posted by Winnie

Victoria, Madeleine and Carl Philip all speak English extremely well. Heard absolutely no Swedish accent. They must have had an American tutor from one of the North Eastern States as a Southern or Western accent is altogether different especially while pronouncing certain words.

They have all lived for some period of time in the states so that has helped. If you watch a video of Madeleine from recent speaking in English and compare it to the video posted above there is a certainly a difference. She is learning to speak without a swedish accent.


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