How Many Languages Can Prince William Speak? He Outshines Kate Middleton In This One Area
Although William, Prince of Wales is the spouse who was actually born into the royal family, Catherine, Princess of Wales seems to shine a little brighter in the public eye. For instance, Kate Middleton's gorgeous hair transformation has had more of a positive reception than Prince William's bearded looks, which occasionally miss the mark. However, when it comes to being an accomplished multilinguist, William has the upper hand.
In addition to his native tongue of English, it's believed William can also speak some French, Welsh, Gaelic, Spanish, German, and Swahili. It's unclear exactly how fluent he is in each language beyond English. However, William showed off his skills with Swahili when speaking to a recipient of a Diana Award in 2019. Tessy Ojo, the Chief executive for the charity that runs the awards, told People that year, "One of the young people is from Tanzania, and [William] started talking to him in Swahili — and this young boy was gobsmacked! It wasn't just one sentence. This was not something he had just read out of a book. It was truly special."
In March 2025, William flexed his language muscles when he spoke Welsh in a celebratory St. David's Day video on X, formerly known as Twitter. Although some fans were impressed, others thought he sounded a little stilted. "It comes across as though he's learned a script phonetically — but some things, including pronouncing the name of our country and saint ... are off quite badly," one wrote. Another person said, "It's not bad considering it is one of the hardest languages to master," and gave him kudos for the effort.
Kate Middleton wants her children to have sharper language skills than she does
English is reportedly the only language that Catherine, Princess of Wales can speak fluently. However, it's believed she has some previous experience speaking Italian and French, but she's been open about her knowledge of languages falling short and seems to hope her and William, Prince of Wales' kids take after their father. According to Town & Country, in 2018 a fan named Greta Tamošaitytė shared a video on Instagram of Kate Middleton speaking with people gathered at Leicester University. The clip was reuploaded by People Magazine, and in it, one of those the royal chatted with told her they were from Italy. Taking the time to remember the correct greeting, Kate said, "I should be saying ... 'Ciao!'" (per Facebook).
Seemingly referring to speaking other languages, she continued, "I'm so bad. I have to make sure my children are better than me. That's my aim." Prince George of Wales, Princess Charlotte of Wales, and Prince Louis of Wales have reportedly been learning Spanish since they were small, due to their nanny Maria Turrion Borrallo. It's also been claimed that their schooling has included French lessons, so one day they may surpass the number of languages the late Queen Elizabeth II could speak.