Infanta Sofía is about to turn 19 on April 29, and her profile within the Royal Household is becoming more clearly defined with each passing month. Although the institutional burden falls on Leonor as the future queen, the two sisters have received virtually identical education, and that includes language skills.
While some time ago the focus was on the Crown Princess’s eight languages, it turns out that Sofía is proficient in exactly the same languages, a fact that the press outside Spain has highlighted, noting that there is no difference between them in this regard.
What languages do Infanta Sofía and Leonor of Spain speak?
The list is quite impressive. In addition to Spanish, both have spoken Catalan, Basque, and Galician since childhood—Spain’s three co-official languages. In addition, they speak English, French, Mandarin Chinese, and Arabic. That’s eight languages in total, enabling them to communicate in half of the official languages of the 194 countries recognized by the UN. Put that way, the figure is impressive.
What is also striking is that, based on publicly available information, Leonor and Sofía are the members of European royalty who speak the most languages. The German magazine Bunte put this into perspective by comparing them to Queen Silvia of Sweden, who is fluent in six languages, two fewer than Felipe and Letizia’s daughters.
Two sisters, the same upbringing, different yet complementary roles. The loyal squire, as she was described at the Princess of Asturias Awards, turns out to be equally well prepared.