You can hear very often that Luxembourgers insert the word mol or emol in their utterances, like:
Erziel mol, wéi war deng Vakanz? – Tell me about your vacation. How was it?
Waard emol! – Wait a second!
Kuck emol, wat ech fonnt hunn! – Look, what I have found!
Kanns de mer mol d’Salz ginn? – Can you pass me the salt?
In spoken Luxembourgish people use mol / emol A LOT as a filler word (a particle) and as you can see it is more appropriate not to translate it at all.
Many people will say that mol is just a shortened version of eemol, but for me and in the examples above mol is NOT a shortened version of eemol. It is the shortened form of emol.
Emol or mol will never modify the meaning of a sentence in a way that it is impossible for you to understand it.
eemol is used to express the “1 time as opposed to 2 times“-idea; while
mol is used for the situation where it is not about the number but about just a point in time.
Beispiller (examples)
Waars du scho mol (particle) zu Paräis? – Have you already been to Paris?
Jo, awer nëmmen eemol. – Yes, but just once.
Ech war mol zu Paräis, awer dat ass scho laang hier. – I’ve been to Paris, but that was long ago.
Let’s look at the last sentence: if someone said eemol instead, I would think the person wants to emphasize that he or she was there exactly once. So the mol conveys something like… “at some point, doesn’t matter when exactly”.
Luxemburgers use mol as well to make a command sound more polite:
Kanns du mer mol d’Salz ginn?- Can you pass me the salt?
Additionally, the word mol does also modify the speech flow and the intonation of the utterance. It makes the sentences sound more casual and friendlier and not too harsh and commanding.
It is often used with the following verbs: kucken, goen, ginn, loossen, maachen, froen, weisen, kommen …
Beispiller (examples)
Komm mol hei, ech muss dir eppes weise! – Come here for a second, I have to show you something!
Fro mol den Tom, ob hie mat eis an de Kino geet! – Ask Tom, if he is going with us to the cinema!
And it is used with e puer: e puer mol = several times
Kéier
- When only preceded by eng→ eng Kéier and it has then the same meaning as eemol:
Beispill
Ech war eng Kéier / eemol zu Paräis. – I have been once (1 time) to Paris.
- otherwise it means time (occasion) and it is preceded by the following words:
ordinal numbers
Dat ass déi drëtt Kéier, datt ech op d’Schueberfouer ginn. – It’s the 3. time that I go to the Schueberfouer.
Déi éischt Kéier hunn ech d’Iessen hei net gutt fonnt. – The first time I didn’t like the food here.
Use in this case always the feminine stressed article déi instead of d’.
aner, all, nächst, lescht, dës
Bis eng aner Kéier. – See you another time (at another occasion).
Hie kënnt all Kéier ze spéit an d’Reunioun. – He comes late to the meeting each time.
Déi nächst Kéier muss du onbedéngt mat bei de Japaner kommen. – (The) next time you absolutely have to come with us to the Japanese restaurant.
Dës Kéier bezuelen ech awer.- I’ll pay this time.
nees (erëm), nach
Kënnt Dir dat nach eng Kéier widderhuelen, w.e.g.? – Can you repeat that one more time, please?
Gees du nees/erëm eng Kéier am Summer an Italien? – Will you go again to Italy in Summer?
Useful Chunks
Iess de Schockela net all an enger Kéier! – Don’t eat all the chocolate at a time!
Op eng Kéier hunn ech Kaméidi héieren. – Suddenly I heard a noise.
Et ass all Kéier datselwecht. – It’s the same each time.
Bis soss eng Kéier. – See you another time. (not sure when).
Download this lesson as a PDF!
