Hi I'm new to this forum and I'm also new to Switzerland having never lived here before. I have lots to learn and I'm looking forward to the new challenge. I'v not moved yet but is Zurich French speaking or German?

Welcome to the EF.

I think it's predominantly German, but to be sure I would use search engine on the EF for precise answer


Some more hints. If Napoleon on his quest to invade the Eastern Europe didnt misplace few troopers the language of the northern regions should still be German, as far as remember back in time when I had asked his Eminence!

I've lived in Zurich for 4 years now and its def german speaking. I haven't used my french since I left school. But due to the many international companies in Zurich, most people speak english too and other languages such as spanish etc are also very much present but the official language is Swiss German, which is different to german

In the Canton of Zurich, German is the official language. And in practical terms, Italian and English are important in fields like Engineering (E), gastronomy (It), tourism (It&E), construction (It), banking (E), rail-traffic (It). Languages like Albanian, Serbian, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Tamil, Eritrean and Suaheli are widely spoken among ethnic minorities.

to the EF!

Judging from your question, you undoubtedly do!

Let me suggest that you spend some time skimming through the Wikipedia article on Switzerland ... it should give you a solid start.

It's definitely German speaking. But, it's Swiss-German, not high German, so more often than not, even if you speak German, they might not understand you. In the grocery stores, everything is labelled in French, German, and Italian, so if you speak any of those languages, you'll still know what you're buying!

Fixed that for you

here we speak french

A) The official language in German speaking Switzerland simply is German
B) Writing (personal, business, media, culture) is done in Standard-German
C) All people understand Standard-German but might be too lazy to speak the Standard language, which they all learnt in school, one lesson per day for 9 years (plus many lessons in professional-schools)

Hi Mark and welcome. Must say though - surprised you didn't do just a tiny weeny little bit of research before posting. So perhaps you ahve time to have a few German lessons before your arrival (however, despite Woolis's reassurance - Swiss German is a 'bit' different. Maybe a visit to a few Scousers to practice the rrrrrrhhhh might help. Try this one "I'm sturrrccchhhh on a rorrrrccchhhh and I wanna get barrrrccchhhh.
Viel Gluck damit. (btw damit is not a swear word in German!)