Two Ways to Say Nice to Meet you in Luxembourgish
In this lesson you will learn how to say in luxemburgish nice to meet you don’t you think that it is important to be able to express yourself when you are meeting someone for the first time so in this episode you will learn two best ways to make an exchange with someone you have never met before whether you want to be formal or informal we will start with a short conversation followed by vocabulary.
Conversation: Listen & See What You Understand
In this conversation, you’ll hear Sandra meeting her new neighbour, Madame Lux, who has just moved into the neighbourhood. Even if you’re a complete beginner, listen and see how much you can already understand.
Don’t worry about every word. Instead, tune into the sounds, rhythm and intonation of Luxembourgish. The more you listen, the more familiar the language will become and the more you’ll start to understand!
You’ll hear the conversation twice once slowly and then in normal spoken luxemburgish afterwards we will break it down.
Sandra: Gudde Moien! Mäin Numm ass Sandra Weber. Ech sinn Är nei Nopesch a wëll mech virstellen.
Neighbour: Oh, ech sinn d’Madamm Lux.
Sandra: Et freet mech Iech kennen ze léieren Madamm Lux.
Neighbour: Oh mech och. Et ass schéin Iech kennen ze léieren.
Sandra: Et freet mech och immens.
Neighbour: Wëllt Dir erakommen an e Kaffi drénken?
Sandra: Jo gär, Madamm Lux.
Neighbour: Du kanns mech och gär duzen. Ech sinn d’Kätti.
Sandra: An der Rei. Ech sinn d’Sandra.
Neighbour: Oh esou schéin dech kennen ze léieren Sandra. Komm eran.
1. Way to Say Nice to Meet You
So in the dialogue you heard:
Et freet mech Iech kennen ze léieren.
Et freet mech means it pleases me and Iech kennen ze léieren means to get to know you or in better English it’s a pleasure to get to know you. It’s the formal way.
How would you say this in an informal way? Well then you will need to replace Iech by dech:
Et freet mech dech kennen ze léieren.
So dech is the informal form here to say you. Now this sounds a bit complicated and I’m happy to let you know that we have a shorter way to say nice to meet you and this is:
Et freet mech or even shorter Freet mech
You can say et freet mech in both formal and informal situations.
And how would you answer now?
Well you just can say:
Mech och.
For example someone says Et freet mech and then you can answer back by saying Mech och.
Och meaning also.
Take note however that with ech och the literal translation is I too and not me too but that’s the way how we would answer okay it is important to be aware of little nuances like this to avoid mistranslating in the future.
That was the first way to say nice to meet you.
2. Way to Say Nice to Meet You
In the dialogue you have also heard this way to say nice to meet you:
Et ass schéin Iech kennen ze léieren.
Et ass schéin means it is nice and then Iech kennen ze léieren is again the formal form to get to know you.
But we have of course also here a shorter version and which is much more natural we would just say:
Schéin Iech kennen ze léieren – nice to meet you (formal)
And maybe you can guess now how the informal form would be:
Et ass schéin dech kennen ze léieren
Or the shorter version Schéin dech kennen ze léieren
And let’s learn here as well how to answer when someone says
Schéin Iech kennen ze léieren or Schéin dech kennen ze léieren you would then say
Dech och. meaning you too, and this is the informal form and the formal form would be: Iech och.
So that was the second way to say nice to meet you
Now I will end this lesson with some vocabulary because in the dialogue you heard some useful vocabulary as well.
Vocabulary
So Sandra says at the beginning:
Ech sinn Är nei Nopesch
Nopesch meaning neighbor for a woman so eng Nopesch it’s a feminine noun neighbor when it’s a woman if your neighbor is a man then you will say Noper – en Noper and the plural if you have neighbors you would say Noperen meng Noperen – my neighbors
And then Sandra says:
Ech wëll mech virstellen. Here we have the verb sech virstellen which means to introduce oneself
Ech wëll mech virstellen – I want to introduce myself
We have here the verb wëllen – to want and we have the verb again in the dialogue when Madame Lux asks
Wëllt Dir erakommen? – wëllt Dir means you want formal situation.
Wëllt Dir erakommen? – Do you want to come in to come in?
And Sandra answers back by saying Jo gär.
Jo gär – yes with pleasure
And then Madame Lux says:
Du kanns mech och gär duzen means to use the du form so the informal form of you in Luxembourgish
Sou, dat war alles fir haut. So that was all for today.
Haut – today
And in my self-study online course A1 Foundation you will learn much more vocabulary about greetings and salutations but also the difference between the formal form of view and the informal form view which is a really important grammar point in luxemburgish.
