Luxembourgish grammar
13 guides that take you from the sounds of Luxembourgish to its tenses, in the order we would read them. Every example is a sentence from the Lëtzebuerger Online Dictionnaire (LOD), most read by a native speaker.
Sounds and spelling
- How to pronounce Luxembourgish: vowels, diphthongs and consonants with audio
ë, é, ä, the seven diphthongs, the two ch sounds, w as v and v as f, and word stress — every sound with a native recording and its IPA from the LOD dictionary.
- Luxembourgish spelling: capitals, long vowels, ë é ä, d' and the n-rule
The official Luxembourgish spelling rules with LOD examples: capitalised nouns, doubled long vowels, ë, é and ä, d' for “the”, the n-rule, French loanwords — and how to type the special letters.
- The Luxembourgish n-rule (Eifeler Regel) explained with examples
Why gudde Moien but gudden Owend: the n-rule in one sentence, which words it affects, and real LOD sentences where you can hear the n drop and stay — with an exercise.
The sentence
- Luxembourgish personal pronouns: ech, du, hien, hatt, si, mir, dir — with audio
Every Luxembourgish personal pronoun in one place: subject and object forms, the short forms mer, der, se, the polite Dir, and why there are two words for she — with native LOD recordings.
- Luxembourgish word order: verb second, verb last and separable verbs
The four rules of Luxembourgish word order — verb second, the verb bracket, verb-last after datt and wann, questions — with the little s of datt s du, shown with LOD sentences and native audio.
- How to ask questions in Luxembourgish: wat, wien, wéini, wou, wéi, firwat
Yes/no questions, every question word, polite questions with Dir, indirect questions and the questions you need in your first week — with LOD sentences and native recordings.
- Negation in Luxembourgish: net, keen, keng, näischt, ni and dach
When to use net and when keen or keng, where net goes in the sentence, nothing, never, nowhere, not yet — and dach — with LOD example sentences and native recordings.
Verbs and tenses
- How to conjugate Luxembourgish verbs in the present tense
The six present-tense endings, four spelling habits, the verbs that change their vowel, separable verbs and the present for the future — forms from the LOD tables, sentences with native audio.
- The Luxembourgish past tense: perfect with hunn or sinn, and war and hat
How Luxembourgish talks about the past: hunn or sinn plus a participle, which verbs take sinn, how participles are formed, modals in the past, and the few simple pasts like war and hat.
- Luxembourgish irregular verbs: sinn, hunn, goen, kommen and the modals
sinn, hunn, goen, kommen, maachen, ginn, wëssen and the five modal verbs — present, perfect and simple past from the LOD tables, and how to say “I had to” (ech hu misse goen).
- 100 everyday Luxembourgish verbs with meanings, present and past
The 100 verbs a Luxembourgish learner needs first, grouped by theme — each with its meaning, the he/she form and the perfect from the official LOD tables, linked to its full conjugation.
Putting it into practice
- 12 common mistakes learners make in Luxembourgish (and how to fix them)
The n-rule, word order, du and Dir, hunn or sinn, net or keen, gär, d' — twelve typical mistakes with the correct form read by a native speaker from the LOD dictionary.
- Luxembourgish levels A1 to B2: what each CEFR level means in practice
What A1, A2, B1 and B2 mean when you speak Luxembourgish, with real sentences for each level, and where the levels matter in Luxembourg — from the Sproochentest to courses and jobs.
Verb tables
Every tense of 212 verbs, with LOD's example sentences. Start with these:
Check your level
A1–B224 questions from A1 to B2, with native listening — about 8 minutes, free, no sign-up.Questions
What is the Luxembourgish n-rule?
A final n drops before most consonants and stays before vowels and before d, t, z, h and n: gudde Moien, but gudden Owend.
Does Luxembourgish have a simple past?
Only a small number of very common verbs do (war, hat, koum, goung, wollt, konnt…). Everyday speech uses the perfect with hunn or sinn: ech hu gemaach, ech si gaangen.
Is it du or Dir in Luxembourgish?
Du for friends, family and children; Dir for people you don't know well and for several people. Dir takes the plural verb: Dir sidd, Dir hutt.
More Luxembourgish
- All free Luxembourgish resources
- Dictionary: words by topic
- Phrasebook: everyday phrases with audio
- 32 greetings and everyday phrases
- En français : ressources gratuites
Grammar sticks when you use it
16Word makes you recall Luxembourgish words and sentences every day, with native audio, spaced review and a Blocks game between answers. Free to start.