Catalan or Spanish?

[AZZA]

I'm going to see Barcelona in August. However, I'm learning the Catalan language. Whilst there, which language do people speak in that region? Spanish, Catalan or some basic English?

 

[Alik]

In the city, almost everyone speaks both. In the other towns, Catalan is more dominant.

Just one note: Barcelona is a cosmopolitan city. And in August it will be full with tourists, whilst the locals tend to go on holidays elsewhere. So it should be normal to hear plenty of other languages.

 

[Vilarrubi]

They all speak both but for travelling purposes I'd advise to learn Spanish because of its wider reach around the world.

 

[AZZA]

Sweet. Thanks for the replies

 

[Pablo Escobar]

Virtually anybody in Barcelona speaks Spanish/Castillan which is the official language of Spain and rules over any other language such as Catalan, Basque or Galician etc and is spoken anywhere in the country with various accents ( you will find pure Spanish in Salamanca and Madrid though ) and only about half to 60% speak Catalan of the local population.

Variations of Catalan are spoken in Valencia or Palma but Spanish will always be the main language in cities/urban areas.

As for English, even if it is disastrous in Spain in general, found it worse than Paris or Rome... you don't really need Spanish as a tourist, you'll find a way around there, people working in tourism do speak a very rotten English while many people working in restaurants are probably immigrants anyway.