French runs the country, Monegasque signs the streets of the old town

It sounds like a one-line answer, and it has two. People in Monaco speak French, and that’s the one you need for the trip. But the country also has its own tongue, Monegasque, which hardly anyone uses to order a coffee and which still turns up on street signs in the old town, in the national anthem and in every state classroom. To me that second answer is the interesting one, so here are both.

What language is spoken in Monaco?

French. Article 8 of the Constitution says so plainly, it’s the official language of the state and the only one. Signs, menus, parking fines and the local papers are in French, and it’s what you’ll hear on the street.

For a visitor that changes very little. Hotels, museums, the boutiques around the Casino and restaurants with an international crowd will switch to English without a second thought. What I would do is walk in with a ‘bonjour’ and walk out with a ‘merci’. Nobody writes it down, but it’s the courtesy of the whole Riviera and you notice the difference.

The one practical catch is your phone rather than your vocabulary. British tariffs have treated Europe as their own business since Brexit, and the Principality sits outside the EU’s roaming area anyway, so leaning on a translation app over mobile data may cost more than you’d guess. I go through the options in using your phone in Monaco.

Monegasque, the language of the grandparents

The government calls it ‘a lenga d’i nostri avi’, the language of our ancestors. It grew out of Genoese, which makes sense once you remember the Grimaldis were a Genoese family, and drifted away as Monaco broke with that republic and mixed with the neighbouring speech of Provence, Liguria and Piedmont.

Something odd happened in the 1860s. The founding of Monte-Carlo pulled in people from the valleys behind Nice, from Italy, Piedmont and Liguria, each with a dialect of their own. Those accents gathered round Monegasque, which they had a lot in common with, and produced a shared everyday speech that became a badge of belonging. I like that story because it shows a small language isn’t a museum piece, it moves with whoever arrives.

Until well into the 20th century Monegasque was spoken, not written. In 1924 a handful of Monegasques founded what became the National Committee of Monegasque Traditions to put it on paper, and in 1927 the writer Louis Notari codified it. A small literature followed, and so did the words of the anthem still sung at official ceremonies.

How many people speak it?

The tourist board says about 5,000. I haven’t found an official survey behind that number, so I read it as a rough guide. For context, 38,857 people live in Monaco and 9,333 hold Monegasque nationality, which tells you Monegasque is far from being every Monegasque’s first language.

Where things really changed is the classroom. Prince Rainier III made it compulsory in state primary schools in 1976 and across state schools in 1988, and today it’s compulsory up to the end of lower secondary and optional later on. A Commission for the Monegasque Language was set up in 1982 and renewed in 2025 with three working groups, for grammar, for vocabulary and the dictionary, and for spreading the language. For a tongue with so few speakers that’s a serious commitment, and to my mind among the most sensible choices the Principality has made.

Where to see and hear it on your visit

Head for the Rock. In Monaco-Ville a number of streets are signed in Monegasque as well as French, and hunting for them between the palace and the cathedral gives the walk another layer. I explain how to explore the district in Monaco-Ville, the old town.

The other way in is a festival. On National Day, 19 November, the anthem is sung in Monegasque, and at Sainte Dévote, Saint John or Saint Nicholas the traditional costumes come out along with the Palladienne, a costumed dance accompanied by mandolin players. I’ve gathered them in Monaco’s traditions and festivals and in Monaco National Day.

English and Italian, and what the sources don’t say

Here I’d rather be careful. Plenty of people will tell you Monaco runs on Italian and English, and it’s plausible, because Italians are the third-largest nationality with 7,559 residents, the British number 3,081 and close to 57,000 cross-border workers arrive each weekday, the bulk of them from the French and Italian side. But no official source I’ve read measures how much either language is used, so I won’t hand you invented percentages.

My advice is simple. For getting about, eating and museums, English will do. For understanding the country, it’s worth knowing there’s a language of its own behind the French, one Monaco takes seriously, as I explain alongside the flag and the anthem in Monaco’s flag and symbols. And if you want to know who the Monegasques keeping it alive actually are, I cover that in who the Monegasques are.