Today, we’re moving on to the last chapter of life: retirement and the end of life
In episode 99 [spotify, apple], part 4 of the series Talk About Your Life in Luxembourgish, we talked about starting a family. Remember how to say: “ to have a baby” That’s: E Puppelche kréien. If you missed it, give it a listen first; it’s a lovely lead-in to what we’re exploring today.
In the previous 4 episodes we have seen so much life already: we saw birth, school, education, work, marriage, having children, and today, let’s talk about retirement and when someone passes away.
You’ll learn phrases you can actually use when talking about your own life or asking questions in conversation.
Are you ready to dive into this last part of Talk About Your Life in Luxembourgish and keep building your skills, step by step, moment by moment, so you can tell your story with confidence?
D’Pensioun
We have the verb
- pensionéieren – to retire but in Lux we can’t use it alone we need to add the verb ginn.
- pensionéiert ginn – to (get) retired
We have the adjective
- pensionéiert – retired;
- d’Pensioun – the retirement (noun)
All of them mean the same thing, namely when you stop working and you don’t plan to work again. And in many countries the age might be around 60 or 65.
Let’s look at how to use these in a sentence:
Meng Mamm ass pensionéiert – My mother is retired – adjective
Hien ass 2010 pensionéiert ginn – He retired in 2010 – verb
You can use the same construction if you would like to say that someone retired at a specific age:
- Hien ass mat 65 pensionéiert ginn – He retired at 65
But you can also say:
Hien ass mat 65 Joer an d’Pensioun gaang.
Here we have the expression: an d’Pensioun goen which is more often used than pensionéiert ginn. An d’Pensioun goen literally means to go to retirement. And in the sentence “Hien ass mat 65 Joer an d’Pensioun gaang” – gaang is the verb goen conjugated in the past.
So to recap: to say that someone retired (he already stopped working) you have 2 possibilities – both meaning the same:
- Hien ass mat 65 pensionéiert ginn
- Hien ass mat 65 Joer an d’Pensioun gaang
So what are some questions you might use with this vocabulary?
Bass du pensionéiert? – Are you retired?
Wéini gees du an d’Pensioun? – When will you retire?
Or if you know someone who is retired, you can ask:
Genéisst du d’Pensioun? – Are you enjoying retirement?
Here we have the verb genéissen – to enjoy
Conversation
I’ll take for this conversation a formal situation as the examples I mentioned before were all using the informal form of you du. Let’s imagine 2 neighbours are bumping together and one just moved several days ago here and they get into a small talk conversation. At some point one person asks
Schafft Dir den Ament? – Are you working at the moment?
Jo, ech sinn Ingenieur a schaffen an enger Firma hei an der Stad. An Dir? – Yes, I am an engineer and I work for a company in the city. And you(formal)?
Nee, ech si pensionéiert. – No, I’m retired.
Oh, scho laang? – Oh, for how long?
Ech si virun 3 Joer an d’Pensioun gaang. – I retired three years ago.
An genéisst Dir d’Pensioun dann? – And are enjoying retirement?
Oh, jo. Ech genéissen se. Ech hunn elo endlech Zäit fir meng Famill, meng Frënn a meng Hobbien. – Oh yes. I enjoy it. I finally have time for my family, my friends, and my hobbies.
Remark: And we also use the noun Pensioun for the allowance you’ll get once you are retired. And a synonym is d’Rent
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verscheeden / stierwen
Now we are at the finality and we are going to talk the words verscheeden – to pass away and stierwen – to die
I know that not everyone likes to talk about the final stage but I think it’s important to have the vocabulary for all the different stages of life.
Verscheeden is another way to say stierwen just like in English to pass away or to die. And as we will always use these verbs in the past you’ll need to know their past participle:
Verscheet for verscheeden and gestuerwen for stierwen. For example: My grandmother passed away in August is in Luxembourgish:
- Meng Groussmamm ass am August verscheet or Meng Groussmamm ass am August gestuerwen
- Hien ass 2015 gestuerwen / verscheet. – Hie died in 2015
We also have the word dout sinn meaning dead but this is an adjective whereas verscheeden / stierwen are verbs. For example:
Den Elvis Prestley ass dout. – Elvis Prestley is dead.
And the noun den Doud – the death
People avoid talking about death when they can, and if someone dies, so they don’t want to talk about it. But other people do, so it depends on the person.
So if you are close to someone, for example a close friend or a family member, you might ask someone, if someone died you might ask one of the following 2 questions:
Oh, wéi ass hien / hatt gestuerwen? – Oh, how did he / she die?
Wéini ass hien / hatt verscheet? – When did he / she pass away?
