If i was to go to switzerland, what language should i know to talk to the locals and people there?

Question

If i was to go to switzerland, what language should i know to talk to the locals and people there?

Answer 1

Actually there is 4 official languages in Switzerland.

I'll class them for you by percentage :

62.7% - Swiss German

20.4% - Swiss French

6.5% - Swiss Italian

0.9% - Romansh

Here is a clear representative picture of it :

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

Hope it helps ;)

Answer 2

mainly german

Answer 3

It really depends on where in Switzerland you are travelling.

I live in Geneva and people speak French (although there is a good grasp of English for touristy things).  Once you get into the Swiss German areas, they speak more English then French (and of course the predominant language is German).

In Berne we found people spoke both French and German.  We notice that in places slightly off the beaten track which are Swiss German that they speak no French but some English).  Of course, Ticino they speak Italian ...

Answer 4

German, French, English and Italian also.

SWITZERLAND is near France, Italy and Germany. For this reason there are a lot of languages.... Where do u want to go??bye bye

Answer 5

I've been to Switzerland many times and in larger cities or where many tourists visit almost everyone speaks English. I admire that you want to fit in and speak with the locals, so the first choice of language would be German. It's the most spoken language in the country, followed by French. Speak the language the canton has as a first language, for example, Zurich is German, Geneva is French, and if you go to Berner Oberland it's a bi-lingual canton. German and French are spoken the same amount.

Answer 6

German, French, English, in that order.

Answer 7

Where do you want to go? It depends of the zone!!

north/north-east: German

ovest: French

south: Italian

But generally people "know" some English....

Answer 8

i was just there for spring break and the main language there is swiss-german. it's a very hard language to learn, although i found that everyone pretty much spoke english also.

goodluck:)

Answer 9

it depends which part of switzerland. Most people speak german, more precicely swiss german (dialect). In the west french is spoken and in the south italian.