12 common mistakes learners make in Luxembourgish (and how to fix them)

Most mistakes in Luxembourgish come from the language you already speak — German endings, English word order, French habits. They are predictable, which means they are fixable. Twelve of the commonest, each with the correct form read by a native speaker from the Lëtzebuerger Online Dictionnaire.

Updated November 3, 2026 · 4 min read

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1. Ignoring the n-rule

✗ *gudden Moien* · ✓ *gudde Moien*. A final *n* drops before most consonants and stays before vowels and *d, t, z, h, n*. It is the first thing native speakers hear in a learner's speech — the n-rule has the whole rule with audio.

2. Speaking German with a Luxembourgish accent

✗ *ich habe dich gern* · ✓ *ech hunn dech gär*. The core words differ: *ech* (I), *mir* (we), *net* (not), *hunn* (have), *sinn* (be). Learn them from Luxembourgish, not by changing German — the pronouns and the tables of hunn and sinn are the place to start.

3. Putting the verb in the wrong place

✗ *Nom Mëttegiessen mir ginn …* · ✓ *Nom Mëttegiesse gi mer …*. In a statement the verb comes second, whatever comes first — a time, a place or an object. English speakers get this wrong most. See word order.

4. Forgetting the verb at the end

✗ *…, datt dir konnt kommen esou séier* · ✓ *…, datt dir esou séier konnt kommen*. After *datt* (that), *well* (because), *wann* (if, when) and *ob* (whether), the conjugated verb goes to the end.

5. Mixing up du and Dir

*Du* is for friends, family and children; *Dir* for anyone you don't know well — a doctor, a clerk, a customer — and for several people. *Dir* takes the plural verb: ✗ *Dir ass* · ✓ *Dir sidd*. Its object form is *Iech*. Full table in personal pronouns.

6. Inventing a simple past the verb doesn't have

✗ *ech spillte* (modelled on German *spielte*) · ✓ *ech hu gespillt*. Most Luxembourgish verbs only have the perfect: LOD gives no simple past for 172 of the 212 verbs in our verb tables, spillen among them. A small number of very common verbs do have one (*war, hat, koum, goung, wollt, konnt*…). When in doubt, use the perfect — see the past tense.

7. Choosing hunn when it should be sinn

✗ *mir hu Vëlo gefuer* · ✓ *mir si Vëlo gefuer*. Verbs of movement and change — goen, kommen, fueren, bleiwen — take *sinn*; most others take *hunn*. Every verb page shows its auxiliary at the top.

8. Saying net where Luxembourgish says keen

✗ *ech verstinn net Englesch* · ✓ *ech versti keen Englesch*. A noun without an article is negated with keen/keng, not with *net*. See negation: net and keen.

9. Translating 'I like' word for word

To like doing something, add gär (gladly) to the verb: *ech liese gär*. To like a thing or a person: *ech hunn … gär*. There is no direct verb for 'to like'. See I love you in Luxembourgish, which explains *gär hunn*.

10. Dropping d'

Feminine and plural nouns take d' — *d'Kanner, d'Zeitung, d'Stad* — and learners leave it out because it is so small. Masculine nouns take *de/den*, neuter ones *dat*. The vocabulary pages list nouns by topic; learn each with its article.

11. Trusting German look-alikes

schaffen means to work (German *arbeiten*), not 'to create'; *Gromper* is a potato; *Kaddo* a present. When a word looks German, check its meaning in the vocabulary topics or on LOD.

12. Switching to French or English too soon

The biggest mistake isn't grammar: it's giving up the conversation as soon as the other person switches language. Say you are learning and ask them to continue in Luxembourgish. Practise the openings — excuse me, please, thank you — and get regular practice with a native speaker: on Edluxio you book 1-to-1 online lessons with independent teachers, among them native Luxembourgish speakers in Luxembourg, starting with a trial lesson that is refunded in full if the first one isn't right for you.

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