What language do they speak in geneva?

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zeggy

Switzerland has three official languages: French, German and Italian. French is the predominant language spoken in Geneva, but most citizens speak at least one other language. English is spoken by about a quarter of the local population and by the majority of foreigners. Of course you can hear just about every other language in Geneva if you listen hard enough, from Albanian to Zimbabwean. When dealing with locals it is recommended that you start off in French, even if it is only a greeting, before transitioning to English.

marizani

Switzerland has four spoken languages: German is the most spoken; French is spoken in the western part of the country; Italian spoken in Ticino and four southern valleys of Canton Graubunden; and Rumantch, spoken only in the trilingual canton of Graubunden.
German, French and Italian are the official languages. English is gradually gaining ground as well.

Alfie

Geneva French, Basel German, south/alpine it's Italian. But in some areas near Basel the lingo is called Schweiz-Deutsch and the local speak at the eastern end of Lake G.and into William Tell country is Romansch. A bit of a mixed-up country if you ask me. Romansch is the only language that's specifically and exclusively Swiss, I believe. That's very nasal, as I recall. I hope some Swiss person can tidy the matter up for you, in a friendly Answers yodel.

sondonesia

Contrary to some of the answers posted here, French â€“ and only French â€“ is the predominant language in Geneva (both city and canton), even though it is a minority language in the country. Due to the high number of internationals in the city (when I lived there, people told me that only about 1/3 of Genevois were actually born there), the informal second language is English. There is also plenty of Arabic, Portuguese and others to go around due to high immigration rates.

Genevois French is similar to France-French, with a few vocabulary exceptions (most notably in numbers, where "septante" (70) and "nonante" (90) replace standard French soixante-dix and quatre-vingt dix). Their accent is probably among the easiest to understand for a non-French speaker the world over.

Note that even though German (SchwyzertÃ¼tsch), Italian and Romansch are all also official languages of Switzerland, the country is extremely decentralized, and it is not typical to find people who speak all (or even more than one, among the younger folks) of the official Swiss languages. More usually, you'll find that people speak the language of their region, plus English.

ge4804

Official language is French. Switzerland has four (not three) official languages. French (25%), German (more than 60%), Italian (10%), Rumansch (Reto-Romanic, old Italian-inspired language: the rest...). HOWEVER: almost everyone in Geneva speaks English...donÂ´t forget: it is where the United Nations, WHO, the Red Cross and numerous other intl organisations have their head-office. One of the most intl cities in the world...
Bienvenue en Suisse...

david f

I don't believe this! Am I really the first person to say FRENCH?
Not 'Swiss' or German or don't know or other cobblers - it's bloody FRENCH!

solaris6060

geneva in Switzerland so they speak majority french and some speak German

xenos

of corse its french
but the are a lot of multi lingo people there

shoe s

french is the general language used there ,but english is ok

Katya-Zelen

French, German or Italian probably

i think its french, then again i could be wrong...

Gunner 4 life

Geneva is in Switzerland, but the Swiss don't have their own language, they speak a mixture of french, German, and Italian, depending how near to the country you are

William C

swiss german or german swiss

jattdatruck

swiss

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