5 Pronunciation Mistakes of the Luxembourgish Letter “G”

IN Level A1

In this lesson you will learn how to pronounce the most common sounds of the Luxembourgish letter “g”. Luxembourgish pronunciation can be challenging and especially the letter “g” is causing some problems to all of my students. Let’s take for example this word: méiglech. How would you pronounce it? Well it is pronounced.

Here the “g” is pronounced like a [j]

What are these mistakes?

Mistake 1

giel – yellow

When a word starts with “g”or when a syllable is stressed pronounce it [g] like in the English word tiger as in:

Gromper – potato, genuch – enough, genee – exactly, begéinen – to encounter, allgemeng – generally

Mistake 2

Fliger – plane

Sounds like “j” in a word and after the letters i, e & r as in

Spigel – mirror, Géigend – surroundings, méiglech – possible, reegelméisseg – regularly, besichtegen – to visit a place, Bierger – citizen

Master all the different sounds of this letter and improve your pronunciation with my Pronunciation Online Course.

Mistake 3

roueg – quiet

“ech” – sound in words ending in –eg and in –zeg as in

reegelméisseg, wichteg – important, zwanzeg –20, granzeg – grumpy, virwëlzeg –curious

Mistake 4

Dag – day

Don’t pronounce it D A G

Here we have the “aach” – sound in words ending in –ag as in

Lag – situation, Virtrag – presentation, Virschlag – suggestioun

Mistake 5

mengen – to mean / think

Here we have the “eng”-sound. You don’t actually pronounce the letter “g”. Listen and repeat: mengen

eleng – alone, keng – no, eng – a/one, enger – a/one (dative case), allgemeng – general, Gemeng – town hall

You see: Knowing how to pronounce a word will help you to use it in conversation. I see some of my students systematically avoiding some words such as “Géigend” or “besichtegen” because they are not sure about the correct pronunciation.

Let’s practice:

Meng Kolleege kommen am August fir 3 Deeg op Lëtzebuerg. Si besichtegen dann all Dag d’Géigend.