Does one need to be fluent in French to live in Montreal?

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David

Catherine is right: you can get by with just English, but in the interest of being able to interact with more people, finding more jobs, and generally having a more thorough and informed appreciation of the city, it's best to learn at least some French if you don't know that language at all, and brush up if you do know a bit but are not fluent.

Catherine :[

you don't need to..but it's better !!!

Vanilla Rose

I seriously think that it would help you tremendously if you did speak at least a bit of French if you're planning on living here.

After all, you do want to enjoy everything Montreal has to offer, am I right?

Don't you fancy learning a different language, especially one as beautiful and rich as French?

Don't be shy!

candleduck

Ha! No

If you are an english speaker especially from canada and your in montreal and are interacting with a french speaker they will have already seen you from a mile away and will speak english with you.

Imaka

No, you don't. Have a French/English dictionary close by, and make an effort, but you can manage without being fluent. And if you live in Montreal you will learn a lot of French just because you are there.

xsuisse

if you plan on getting a job you need to be able to communicate in french. because if it comes down to someone who's anglo or someone who's bilingual, who would you hire?..
but my family lived there for 10 years and my mother can't speak a word of french and she was fine (she was a stay at home mom), there are plenty of anglos around.

Dangermanmi6

no but it really helps a lot especially if you have to interface with any levels of government (even the feds) they will make it difficult to get the information in English but if you perservere they will get the info for you.

Mawia

I just spent a weekend in Montreal, and contrary to what I had heard about Montrealers; when I made a good effort to speak French, it was appreciated and they spoke the English they knew in return. I believe it is an attitude thing - a smile and a request for help is rarely refused - in any language.

FeatherHead

Mais, non!

Brooke S

no. know ALOT of words though. are you going on a trip?

Fab

Hi,
You don't need to be fully fluent in French to live in Montreal but knowing some French can be very useful. There are quite a lot of English speaking persons in Montreal and a lot of people there are bilingual.
Hope this helps.

As long as you are not a Canadian, you don't need French. Just say where you're from and all is forgiven.

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