If you want to describe a cycling adventure, a night out partying or your last weekend, you’ll need verbs to describe your actions.
If you’re a beginner Luxembourgish learner and are still tripping up with learning your verbs, I’ve gathered together my top 10 most-used verbs that all beginners should aim to learn from the get-go.
Let’s get started.
If you want to learn the conjugation of these 10 verbs, do watch the lesson on youtube!
1 sinn – to be
Present tense: ech sinn
Imperfect tense: ech war
Sinn is in most cases used in the imperfect tense and not in the perfect tense.
Beispiller – examples:
Ech sinn doheem. – I am at home.
Et ass mir kal. – I am cold.
Gëschter war hei wonnerschéint d’Wieder. – The weather was lovely here yesterday.
2 hunn – to have
Present tense: ech hunn
Imperfect tense: ech hat
Like sinn we use the verb hunn in most cases in the imperfect tense and not in the perfect tense.
Beispiller – examples:
Mir hunn en Hond an zwou Kazen. – We have a dog and two cats.
Mir hate gutt Wieder an der Vakanz . – We had nice weather on vacation.
3 goen – to go
Present tense: ech ginn
Present Perfect: ech si(nn) gaang
To build the perfect tense of verbs expressing a movement like goen we use the auxiliary verb sinn.
And the past participle of the verb comes to the very end of the sentence.
Beispiller –examples:
Ech ginn zu Fouss schaffen. – I go to work by walking.
Mir sinn an d’Schwämm gaang . – We went to the swimming pool.
4 kënnen – to be able to / to can
Present tense: ech kann
Imperfect tense: ech konnt
Kënnen is a modal verb. The conjugation of modals differs from the other verbs. Learn more about modal verbs in this lesson.
Beispiller –examples:
Ech kann immens gutt baken. – I can bake very well.
D’Kanner konnten net erausgoen . – The children couldn’t go out.
5 maachen – to make / do
Present tense: ech maachen (ech man)
Present Perfect: ech hu(nn) gemaach
To build the perfect tense of most verbs we use the helping verb hunn.
And the past participle of the verb comes again to the very end of the sentence.
Beispiller – examples:
Ech maachen net vill Sport. – I don’t do much sports.
Wat hutt dir de leschte Weekend gemaach? – What have you done last weekend?
6 ginn – to become
Present tense: ech ginn
Present Perfect: ech (sinn) ginn
This verb is used to express the future and the passive voice. Don’t mix it up with goen! To build the perfect tense of this verb we use the helping verb sinn.
Beispiller –examples:
Ech ginn am Mee 30 Joer al. – I will be (become) 30 years old in May.
Hien ass déck ginn. – He has become fat.
7 wëllen – to want
Present tense: ech wëll
Imperfect tense: ech wollt
Wëllen is a modal verb. Learn more about modal verbs in this lesson.
Beispiller –examples:
Ech wëll Spuenesch léieren. – I want to learn Spanish.
Hatt wollt net mat eis an de Kino kommen . – She didn’t want to come with us to the cinema.
8 kommen – to come
Present tense: ech kommen
Present Perfect: ech si(nn) komm
Beispiller –examples:
Ech kommen aus England. – I’m coming from England.
Ech sinn ze spéit op d’Aarbecht komm. – I came too late to work.
9 mussen – to have to
Present tense: ech muss
Present Perfect: ech hu(nn) mussen / missen
Mussen is a modal verb. And mussen has no imperfect tense.
Beispiller –examples:
Ech muss haut Lëtzebuergesch léieren. – I have to learn Luxembourgish today.
Mir hunn den Zuch huele mussen. – We had to take the train.
10 soen – to say / to tell
Present tense: ech soen
Present Perfect: ech hu(nn) gesot
Beispiller –examples:
Ech muss dir eppes soen. – I have to tell you something.
Wat huet hatt gesot? – What did she say?
So now hopefully you’ll be able to drop these verbs into all your written and spoken Luxembourgish without any problems at all!
