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.
My colleagues will come to Luxembourg for 3 days in August. They will visit the surroundings every day.
Just like you practice and study grammar, you should practice and study pronunciation.
These are only a few sounds of the letter g. In my online course Luxembourgish Pronunciation you will learn all the sounds of this letter.
Practise and improve your pronunciation with the
This course is for everyone – beginners and for those who want to improve their pronunciation.