When do you say ech hunn vs ech hu?

IN Level A1

In your beginners course you have learnt that I have is ech hunn and that

I have a(n) is ech hunn en/eng – depending on the gender of the noun that follows;

and

I have not is ech hunn net

But later on, during your learning journey you came across ech hu for saying that you don’t have someone or something:

I have no children is ech hu keng Kanner

But why do I hear many of my students automatically say ech hu for I have.

For example ech hu Zäit. Is this correct? Well, no ….

Here are 2 easy rules for you to remember:

Rule 1: ech hunn …

+ en, eng / + net

ech hunn en Hond – I have a dog
ech hunn eng Duechter – I have a daughter
ech hunn net vill Zäit –I have not much time

Rule 2: ech hu …

+ keen / keng …

ech hu keen Honger – I have no hunger
ech hu keng Zäit – I have no time
ech hu kee Kand – I have no child

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What is different between rule 1 & rule 2?

Well, this is all about the n-rule. It has nothing to do with a contraction like in English I have contracts to I’ve or in German they say Ich hab instead of Ich habe. That’s not the case in Luxembourgish.

The n-rule concerns dropping or not dropping the final n or nn of a word depending on the word that follows. We like to make the language flow which means we only write and pronounce sounds they can hear.

The most important is to get familiar with the n-rule. It is really easy to remember but it takes practice!

So you can’t just drop the double “n” of hunn whenever you want.

The most important is to get familiar with the n-rule. It is really easy to remember but it takes practice!

In a conversation it will sound very odd to native speakers if you drop the n systematically!

Now of course hunn can be followed by any word (noun, adjective, article, pronoun, adverb etc) and depending with which letter this word will start you will have to apply the n-rule.

To get the grip of this I suggest that you practice straight away with me!