Can you talk about your bike in Luxembourgish?

IN Level A1

Cycling is part of everyday life in Luxembourg — whether it’s commuting to work, exploring the countryside or simply enjoying a Sunday ride at the Musel. But do you know how to describe your bike in Luxembourgish?

In this episode, we’ll learn some useful Luxembourgish words to talk about bicycles. 🚲

You’ll discover the names of a few main parts of a bike, some common accessories, and handy verbs to describe riding a bike.

By the end, you’ll be able to describe your own bike and use simple sentences to talk about cycling in Luxembourgish.

How to say I’m cycling:

Ech fuere Vëlo.
Ech fuere gär Vëlo – I like cycling

This is used to express the activity of cycling. But you can also say:

Ech fuere mam Vëlo schaffen.

You heard that I added the word mam before Vëlo. This is used when referring to the means of transport:

Ech fuere mam Vëlo schaffen – I go to work by bike.
Ech fuere mam Vëlo an d’Stad. – I go to the city by bike.

Now that you know this let’s learn the different parts of a bike.

Let’s start with de Guidon. De Guidon is used to steer the bike

Um Guidon ass normalerweis och eng Schell – eng Schell is a bell. So the bell is d’Schell – it’s feminine

Vir um Vëlo ass eng Luucht – In the front of the bike is a light.

And the light is d’Luucht.

Dann huet de Vëlo Bremsen – eng Brems vir an eng Brems hannen. So the bike also has brakes – one in the front and one in the back.

Eng Brems is singular and Bremsen the plural

And here I said vir which means in the front and hannen meaning in the back

And the action to brake is bremsen.

De Vëlo huet natierlech Rieder – Rieder are wheels: e viischt Rad an en hënnescht Rad

So e Rad is the singular of Rieder: a wheel. And e viischt Rad is a front wheel and en hënnescht Rad is a back wheel.

In the back of a bike you have the bike rack which is de Gepäckdréier. So you can say: Hannen um Vëlo hunn ech e Gepäckdréier.

And a bike has also a chain: eng Ketten. We use the same word for a necklace: eng Ketten.

To cycle you’ll need to push the pedals, right. A pedal is eng Pedall, an de Vëlo huet zwou Pedallen. You need to say zwou because Pedall is a feminine noun: zwou Pedallen.

To push the pedals is: an d’Pedallen drécken or you can also say pedalléieren – to pedal

And interestingly, in Luxembourgish we also have an …

👉Expression with Pedallen:

d’Pedalle verléieren — literally, to lose the pedals

We use this idiom to say that someone is overwhelmed or can’t keep up anymore, just like a cyclist who can’t find their pedals when things get too fast. Beispill:

Mäi Jong huet sou vill op der Uni ze léieren, ech mengen hie verléiert d’Pedallen!

My son has so much to study at university, I think he’ll lose the pedals! (meaning: he will be overwhelmed)

An all Vëlo huet e Suedel. De Suedel is the saddle.

If you have an e-bike also en Elekrovëlo you’ll have a battery which we call Akku, den Akku.

And to charge the battery use the verb oplueden: ech muss owes den Akku vum Vëlo oplueden

An net ze vergiessen: de Kask or den Helm which is the helmet. Kask and Helm are interchangeable. Du solls e Kask opsetzen fir Vëlo ze fueren. E Kask oder en Helm opsetzen – to put on an helmet.