Two official languages
Maltese and English both have official status, a direct result of the island being under British administration until 1964. Road signs, menus, official forms and websites routinely appear in both. Maltese is the language of daily life and of family conversation; English is the language of work, education and tourism. Most Maltese people switch between the two mid-sentence without noticing.
What Maltese actually is
Maltese is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet and the only one that is an official language of the European Union. Its structure comes from Arabic, specifically the Sicilian Arabic spoken a thousand years ago, and roughly half its vocabulary has been absorbed from Italian and Sicilian, with a further layer from English. The result sounds unlike anything else in Europe: Arabic rhythm, Italian words, English loanwords in the middle of a sentence.
Will you manage in English?
Yes, completely. Hotel staff, bar staff, door staff, taxi drivers, shop assistants: English is the default with visitors and the level is high, not phrasebook English. Many Maltese also speak Italian, a legacy of decades of Italian television, which helps if that is your language. French and Spanish are far less common, so English remains the safe bet.
A few words worth having
Nobody expects you to speak Maltese, and using a little of it goes down very well. Merħba means welcome. Grazzi is thank you, from the Italian. Jekk jogħġbok is please. Saħħa is cheers, and the one you will actually use. Iva and le are yes and no. Bongu is good morning and bonswa good evening, both borrowed straight from French.
Signs, menus and the small print
Menus in tourist areas are in English, often in Italian as well. Bus stops, road signs and official notices are usually bilingual. The one place Maltese appears alone is in villages away from the coast and in older printed notices. Place names can be confusing at first because Maltese spelling follows its own rules: Xemxija is pronounced shem-shee-ya, and Ħaż-Żebbuġ starts with a soft h.