Meeting people in Luxembourgish
How are you, what is your name, where are you from, I like it: the first five minutes. Play the ten Luxembourgish words against the clock, with a note on how locals really use each one after every answer. All ten are written out below.
All 10 Luxembourgish phrases in this lesson
- Wéi geet's Iech?vay gays eekh
- How are you?
- Gutt, Mercigut, mer-SEE
- I'm fine, thanks
- An Iech?an EEKH
- And you?
- Wéi heescht Dir?vay haystsh deer
- What's your name?
- Ech heeschen...esh HAY-shen
- My name is...
- Vun wou kommt Dir?fun voo komt deer
- Where are you from?
- Ech kommen aus...esh KOM-en ows
- I'm from...
- Dat gefält mirdat ge-FELT meer
- I like it
- Et ass schéinet as SHAYN
- It's beautiful
- WëllkommVEL-kom
- Welcome
Use the formal Iech form with strangers, older people, and in professional settings. Luxembourgers tend toward formality in initial encounters. The question often gets a simple Gutt, Merci in response.
The standard and entirely adequate reply to "how are you." You can add an Iech? or dir? at the end to return the question. Most conversations in Luxembourg follow this familiar pattern.
Polite. To a friend: "an dir?".
A friendly opener for introducing yourself. You can follow up with Ech heeschen... (My name is...). Luxembourgers are welcoming once the initial formality is broken.
A very common question in Luxembourg, where roughly half the population is foreign-born. Expect the same question to come back to you. Answering with the country name is perfectly sufficient.