How to conjugate Luxembourgish verbs in the present tense

Six endings, four spelling habits and a short list of verbs that change their vowel — that is the whole Luxembourgish present tense. Here it is step by step, with the forms from the official LOD dictionary and sentences read by native speakers.

Updated November 1, 2026 · 5 min read

The present tense does most of the work in Luxembourgish: it says what is happening now, what you usually do, and — with a time word like *muer* (tomorrow) — what you will do. Learn it once and you can already talk about your work, your home and your plans. All the forms below come from the conjugation tables of the Lëtzebuerger Online Dictionnaire (LOD); each verb links to its full table in our Luxembourgish verb conjugation section.

The regular endings

Take the infinitive, remove -en, and add the ending for the person. The pronouns are explained in Luxembourgish personal pronouns.

Notice that ech, mir and si (they) share the infinitive form, and hien and dir share the -t form. The same pattern runs through lauschteren (listen), léieren (learn), kachen (cook), laachen (laugh), hoffen (hope), sichen (look for) and drénken (drink).

Four spelling habits

1. No double s or z for du

When the stem already ends in s, z or tz, du adds nothing: schwätzen → *du schwätz*, danzen → *du danz*, botzen → *du botz*, liesen → *du lies*, reesen → *du rees*. A stem in sch still takes its s: wäschen → *du wäschs*.

2. w becomes f before s and t

A stem ending in w is written with f in the du and hien forms: schreiwen → *du schreifs, hie schreift*; bleiwen → *du bleifs*; gleewen → *hie gleeft*; liewen → *hie lieft*.

3. d and t merge

waarden (wait) gives *du waarts, hie waart, dir waart*; bedeiten (mean) gives *et bedeit* — never a double t.

4. Long vowels lose a letter

Luxembourgish spells a long vowel double in a closed syllable and single in an open one, so the same sound can change its spelling inside one verb: kafen → *dir kaaft*, lafen → *dir laaft*, schlofen → *dir schlooft*. The words sound regular; only the spelling moves.

Verbs that change their vowel with du and hien

A group of very common verbs changes its vowel in the du and hien/hatt/si forms only — the others stay regular. These are the ones to learn by heart:

Then come the true irregulars — sinn, hunn, goen, stoen, wëssen — and the modal verbs kënnen, mussen and wëllen. They have their own guide: Luxembourgish irregular verbs.

Verbs from French: -éieren

Luxembourgish has hundreds of verbs taken from French with the ending -éieren, and they are perfectly regular: probéieren (try) → *ech probéieren, du probéiers, hie probéiert*; studéieren, telefonéieren, invitéieren. If you know French, this is free vocabulary.

Separable verbs: the prefix goes to the end

Verbs like ufänken (begin), uruffen (phone), opstoen (get up), zoumaachen (close) and ukommen (arrive) split in the present: the verb part is conjugated as usual and the prefix — un, op, zou — moves to the end of the clause. Word order shows where exactly.

The present for the future

Luxembourgish usually talks about the future with the present tense and a time word — *muer* (tomorrow), *geschwënn* (soon), *de Mëtteg* (this afternoon), *nächst Woch* (next week).

A 10-minute drill

1. Pick three regular verbs — schaffen, wunnen, léieren — and say all six forms aloud.
2. Make one true sentence with each: *Ech wunnen zu…*, *Ech schaffen als…*, *Ech léiere Lëtzebuergesch.*
3. Switch to du and hien: *Wou wunns de? Hie schafft…* — then check yourself on the verb pages.
4. Add three vowel-change verbs: iessen, fueren, kafen.
5. Tomorrow, test yourself without the table — recalling a form you have not just read is what makes it stay.

Keep learning

• Personal pronouns: ech, du, hien, hatt, si
• Irregular verbs and the modals
• The past tense with hunn and sinn
• Word order and separable verbs
• The n-rule explained
• Negation: net, keen, näischt
• Asking questions
• 100 common Luxembourgish verbs
• Everyday phrases with audio
• All 209 verb tables