Welcome to your first Luxembourgish Conversation Workout! Natural Luxembourgish pronunciation takes practice. And I’m here with your Conversation Workout! 10 minutes of solid conversation training – to help you sound more natural when you introduce yourself in Luxembourgish!
More pronunciation practice: Basics of Luxembourgish Pronunciation
Conversation Workout #2: Making Plans
Over the past few months, many of you have written to me asking for help with your Luxembourgish speaking skills. You just want to sound more natural and more casual, right?
Well you’re in luck because in this lesson, we’re going to do exactly that!
This is an intensive ‘repeat after me’ style lesson that’s going to help you to strengthen those speaking skills and your listening skills at the same time. We’re going do a lot of speaking practice together in a short space of time so you need to be ready to participate. By the end of the workout, you’ll feel more confident and you’ll sound more natural when you use these common conversation expressions.
Today’s workout will focus on greetings and introductions. We’re going to practise some really common questions that you can ask or that you might be asked in a casual and very common Luxembourgish conversation, and. ….. very useful for those who intend to take the Luxembourgish language test called Sproochentest.
Now these are going to be phrases that you already know, but we’re going to focus on your pronunciation and your expression. So you’ll practise listening and then saying these questions just like native speakers do and we’ll play around a little with word stress as well. So get ready to practise out loud. It’s workout time!
Watch this week’s lesson here!
When we meet with someone, whether it’s someone we already know or someone we’re just meeting for the first time, we almost always ask how they are, right? So for our first set, we’ll practise some simple phrases that all mean the same thing.
Wéi geet et?
- Salut Marc, wéi geet et? – Hi Marc, how are you?
Good! So notice how geet et just sounds like one big word there. Do it again.
Salut Marc, wéi geet et?
Last one: Salut Marc, wéi geet et?
Okay, now let’s change the emphasis a little here:
- Salut Marc, wéi geet et dir? – Hi Marc, how is it going to you?
Adding the word ‘dir’ helps to sound really interested in the answer so if you know the person well but you haven’t really seen them for a while then using this intonation is great because it shows that you really care.
Let’s try another way to greet someone you know very well:
- Salut Claude, wéi ass et? – Hi Claude, how are you doing?
Literally this is how is it? and is commonly used in casual situations. Let’s repeat:
Salut Claude, wéi ass et?
Here something even more casual:
- An? Geet et? – And? Is is going?
And for the last one, something super, super casual.
- An? – And?
In spoken Luxembourgish, it’s really really common to just say “An?” when you know the other person very well.
Let’s move on!
An? Wat méchs du …..?
When we’re speaking with friends or even colleagues at work, we can use this expression to find out what’s happening right now, but we often use it to find out what plans are in the future, what someone’s plans are.
So it’s a little question that can start a conversation or a really useful one to help you keep a conversation going.
Now in the next few phrases that we practise, we’re going to begin each question with ‘An’ because it helps to give the listener a clue that you’re going to say something or you’re going to ask something.
And I also want you to listen out for the stressed words and the way that we change the focus of the question by stressing certain words.
- An? Wat méchs du den Owend? – So, what are you doing tonight?
In spoken language you would rather hear:
Wat mëss de den Owend? You can notice that méchs sounds like mëss and that we use de, instead of du .This is really really common in spoken Luxembourgish to use this weak form in questions.
Do it again. Great stuff!
- A wat méchs de dann de Weekend? So what are you doing (then) on the weekend?
Now push the stress onto dann. Again, it is really common in spoken language to use dann in questions. It doesn’t change or add anything to the question but it put some emphasize and most of the time you will hear ‘da’ (dann is subject to the N-Rule) as in the following example:
- A wat méchs de da muer? – So what are you doing (then) tomorrow ?
Notice that I’m linking méchs de da which sounds like mëssdeda
More casual:
- An? Wat méchs de dann esou? – So what are you doing (then) up to?
Notice here the 2 words dann esou. It’s the way native speakers talk in very casual situations.
Hues du eppes vir?
Okay so this phrase is really similar to Wat méchs du …? but it’s as well common for native speakers to ask a question this way.
Are you ready to give it a go?
- Hues de haut eppes vir? – What are you up to today? Do you have any plans for today?
Brilliant! Alright, let’s give this question a little bit more focus.
- Hues de haut schonn eppes vir? – Do you already have some plans for today?
Great! Now if we can put the 2 questions you’ve just learned together to make our sentence more interesting:
- A, wat méchs du esou de Weekend? Schonn eppes vir? – So what are you up to for the weekend? Got any plans?
Excellent! And last time.
A, wat méchs du esou de Weekend? Schonn eppes vir?
This one is definitely one of the most common small talk questions that you just hear all the time.
And then it is very common to move on with the conversation by talking about the family. Asking a question about the family, helps to show interest in someone especially if you haven’t seen each other for a while or if you don’t see someone often.
Wéi geet et denger Famill?
Now there are different ways to ask about the family, but we’re going to focus on some of the most common and the most natural sounding ways of asking about the family in Luxembourgish.
- Wéi geet et denger Famill? – How’s your family?
Perfect! Now you can be more precise if you know the other person well:
- Wéi geet et denge Kanner? – How’re your children?
Or if you want to know more details:
- Wat maachen deng Kanner dann esou? – What are your kids up to?
Notice again that it’s common in informal conversations to use the 2 words dann esou in questions.
And more casual
- An? Wat soen se doheem? – And? What about your family?
Literally this is What do they say at home?
Well done for making it all the way through to the very, very end.
Let’s just get something clear here, I did not make this lesson for you to watch it once and then walk away and forget about it. This is your training okay? You need to come back and practise with me often, alright?
If you want to sound like a native speaker, you’ve got to get comfortable using these words combination and reductions just like we’ve practised all the way through this lesson.
Now I’m curious to hear what you thought about our first Luxembourgish Conversation Workout here at LWA. Was it helpful for you to practise this way? Do you want me to make more lessons like this about anything in particular? Let me know by liking the video and leaving a comment below.
Download the PDF so to practice what you have learnt in this lesson!
I hope you liked it and found it useful. And …. why not sharing this lesson with your friends:-)
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“Luxembourgish Pronunciation Course“
