Asking Questions in Luxembourgish

IN Conversation, Level A1

Asking questions and giving answers are the basics of great conversation in Luxembourgish and in any language! In this lesson I want to help you to ask questions in Luxembourgish so that you can start enjoying Luxembourgish conversation!

Let’s start with

The question structure

There are three main parts that you need to keep in mind:

Part 1: the question words or question phrases

wien who – wat what – wou where – wéi how – wéini when.

wéi laang how long, wéi oft how often, wéi vill how much / many, säit wéini since when etc.

Part 2: the main verb or the auxiliary verb

sinn be – hunn have – kënnen can – wëllen want – sollen should etc.

Part 3: your subject

du you (informal) – dir you (plural) – mir we – d’Gare the station – mäi Brëll my glasses …

Beispiller (examples)

Wou wunnen deng Elteren? – Where do your parents live?
Wéini muss du fortgoen? – When do you have to leave?

What about this type of question:

Wunns du an der Stad? – Do you live in Luxembourg city?

In this question we don’t have a question word but we do have all of the other parts of the Luxembourgish question structure: the main verb wunnen, the subject du. This type of question is perfectly acceptable too. You don’t need to have a question word.

It’s as simple as that, every time!

As you can see there are

Two types of questions in Luxembourgish

Closed questions, the questions which start with a verb; and

Open questions, questions which start with a question word or question phrase.

Questions that start with a verb or a helping verb are closed questions because they require just a simple answer, Jo yes or Nee no. The detail is not really important.

Beispiller (examples)

Hues du Spinat gär? – Nee. Do you like spinach? – No, I don’t.
Kann ech iech hëllefen? – Jo, gär. Can I help you? – Yes, with pleasure.

Questions that start with a question word are open questions and they’re questions that require more information in the answer.

5 important question words

Wou – Where

Where should actually be translated into two words – Wou and Wuer. Unlike English which uses where for both location and the direction somebody/something is going to, Luxembourgish does make that distinction. You use wou when asking where the location somebody/something is, you use wuer when asking the direction someone/something is going to.

Beispiller (examples)

Wou ass mäi Brëll? – Where are my glasses?
Wuer gitt dir an d’Vakanz? – Where do you go on holiday?

Wien – Who

Beispiller (examples)

Wien ass dat? – Who’s that?
Wie geet mat mir an de Kino? – Who’s coming with me to the cinema?

Now, let me tell you, in real conversation most native Luxembourgish speakers don’t say wien but they are more likely to say ween. And as ween is ending in n it is subject to the n-rule and so you will often just here wee: Wee geet mat mir an de Kino?

Listen to the video version of this lesson to listen to the correct pronunciation of this word in natural spoken Luxembourgish.