Learn how to ask in Luxembourgish “How old are you?”

In this lesson you will learn how to ask someone their age and how to answer that question and you will as well learn about the possessive pronouns.  So we are going to talk about the age which is in Luxembourgish

Den Alter

When talking to someone you know well or someone younger than you and you would like to ask them How old are you?  you could say:

• Wéi al bass du? –  How old are you?

To answer that question, you can say ech sinn {+ your age} Joer al:

• Ech sinn 33 Joer al. – I am 33 years old.

So I am is ech sinn and to be is sinn. Now the polite form of how old are you? is:

• Wéi al sidd Dir? – How old are you (formal)?

In Luxembourgish you can as well answer that question by simply  saying:

• Ech hunn 33 Joer.  Literally: I have 33 years. 

Wéi al sinn …..?

Informal

Now when talking to someone you know well about your children, they might ask you what age your children are, and they would ask you:

• Wéi al sinn deng Kanner? – How old are your children?
• Wéi al ass deng Duechter? – How old is your daughter?

Formal

Now let’s learn to ask the question how old is / are ….? but using the polite form:

• Wéi al sinn Är Kanner? – How old are your children?
• Wéi al ass Äre Jong? – How old is your son?
• Wéi al ass Är Duechter? – How old is your daughter?

Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns are quite simply used to show that a noun belongs to somebody or something (e.g ‘mine’, ‘your’, ‘his’).

So mäin and meng are possessive pronouns.  And depending on the gender and number of the noun, you have to pick the appropriate pronoun. Use däin when the noun is masculine däi* Jong  or neuter and deng when the noun is femininne so deng Duechter or plural. Both däin an deng mean your in English.

Now däin and deng is the informal form of your but when using the polite form you should say: Ären when the noun is masculine Äre* Jong and Är when the noun is feminine so Är Duechter or plural.

*Remember the n-rule

The basic forms of the possessive Luxembourgish pronouns in the nominative case and accusative case of my, your and his / her are as follows:-                                                 

Hien ass …. Joer al

And to answer the question how old is your son? you could say:

• Hien ass zwielef Joer al. – He is twelve years old.

As you can see this is an exact translation from the English.

or you can say:

• Meng Duechter huet zéng Joer. – My daughter has 10 years.

Let’s practice:

Translate the following sentences into Luxembourgish:

1. How old is your (formal) husband?
2. My wife is forty years old.
3. Your (formal) daughter is tall for her age.

Check the solution by downloading the PDF and practice  with MORE sentences to translate !

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 Learn in this lesson “How to tell the time in Luxembourgish”!