Easy Luxembourgish

Level 2

Lesson notes

Lesson 14

Study notes

Learn how to use “sinn” and “hunn” in the past

Learn how to say “when” and “if” in Luxembourgish

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LESSON NOTES
Wéi al waars du, wéi s du ….
In this lesson you will learn that the verbs sinn and hunn don’t
have or at least they don’t use really the  perfect tense but rather
the imperfect called Preterit in Luxembourgish. And you will learn
how to say “when” or “if” in Luxembourgish.

Let’s start by asking someone “How was your weekend?”

Wéi war däi Weekend?

How was your weekend?

I’ve used war - wéi war däi Weekend? And that is obviously of the
verb sinn and in the imperfect tense. That is another past tense.

Conjugating Verbs
sinn
sinn: to be (imperfect tense)
ech war mir waren
du waars dir / Dir waart
hien / hatt / Si war si waren

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hunn
hunn: to have (imperfect tense)
ech hat mir haten
du has dir / Dir hat
hien / hatt / Si hat si haten

To talk further back in time - if we know the specific time frame -

for example “a year ago” we would say virun engem Joer. Virun is
comparable with “before” or “ago”. And that works for any timeframe
virun 10 Joer “10 years ago”  virun 100 Joer  “100 years ago”.
And you can use as well:

virun engem Mount

a month ago

virun enger Woch

a week ago

Virun is a preposition which requires us to use the dative case.

Let’s have some examples:

Ech war virun enger Woch beim Coiffer.

I was to the hairdresser a week ago.

Mir ware virun zwee Deeg beim neien Italiener.

We went to the new italian restaurant two days ago.

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Hie war virun engem Joer vill krank.
He was very sick a year ago.

But if you don’t know exactly the date when talking in the past you
can either use fréier meaning “earlier” in the sense of earlier in the
past or deemools more in the sense of “at that time”. You can use
fréier or deemools for something that happened any time ago. For
example you are talking with your family about Christmas 10 years
ago and you wanted to say: “At that time I always wore black
clothes”:

Deemools hunn ech ëmmer schwaarz Kleeder ugedoen.

At that time I always wore black clothes.

Ugedoen is the past participle of undoen “to put on”.  

Just to remind you:

We started with Deemols so the next element there has to be the

verb, and in our example it is the auxilary verb hunn followed by the
subject ech. Deemools hunn ech  and then all the other elements
come in the middle ëmmer schwaarz Kleeder  and at the end we
have the 2. part of our verbal part ugedoen. Let’s do a phrase with
fréier.

Fréier hat keen en Handy.

In the past nobody had a mobile phone.

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Grammar - Preterit
And there I am using hat because I am using the verb hunn and in the
previous sentence I used the perfect tense hunn ugedoen. The only
reason why we are using the preterit in the last phrase it’s because we
only used the verb hunn. It has nothing to do with recent or further past.
The Preterit and the perfect tense they serve the same function. It is just
a matter of style. And so we only use the preterit with hunn and sinn.
Let’s have an example with sinn:

Fréier war alles besser!

Earlier everything was better.

Or equally we could say Deemols war alles besser.

If we wanted to talk about the last century, for example in the 20th
century this is am zwanzegste Joerhonnert. The word for century
is Joerhonnert “year hundred”. Some examples:

Am 19. (nonzéngte) Joerhonnert gouf et keen Internet.

In the 19th century there was no internet.  

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 Et gëtt - et gouf
Do you remember et gëtt meaning “there is” (in the sense of it
exist) from the verb ginn. Et gëtt is as well not changed into the
perfect tense when we speak about it in the past. So we would use
the preterit which is et gouf. And as we start with Am 19.
Joerhonnert  we invert et a gouf.

Gouf et gëschter Gromperekichelcher an der Kantin.

Were there Gromperekichelcher at the cantine yesterday?

Think of the et gëtt x construction (literally "it gives x") as saying "x
exists". When you ask Gëtt et en Dessert? you're asking if there is
any desert present.
You could therefore ask Gëtt et een …., deen….? to ask if
someone exists in a more general context, for instance, if you're to
tired to drive home you might ask Gëtt et een, dee mech
heembrénge kann? "Is there someone who can take me home?".
In this case, you don't really care about that person's precise
location, just whether or not there exists someone who can take you
home. Alternatively, if you hear a knock at the door, you might call,
Ass een do? to mean "Is someone there?", as you are in this case
asking not if the person exists, but if they are standing in front of
your door.
A simpler (though less precise) explanation might be that when is/
are/was/etc... and there are next to each other in the English
sentence, you should use the et gëtt/gouf expression, while when
the there is not next to the form of to be, you probably want to
translate literally, using do and a form of sinn.

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So remember that we use the verbs sinn, hunn and ginn in the
imperfect.

Let’s learn how to say “When I was a child …” For this we need a
subordinate clause and we use wéi for “when”.
Why don’t we use wéini which means also “when”?
Wéini is only used for questions for example Wéini fiert den
Zuch? Wéini gees du heem?  “When does the train leave?” or
“when do you come home”. But to say “when I was a child” use wéi.

Wéi ech e Kand war…

when I was a child…

As we have a subordinate clause we put the verb at the end!

Wéi ech e Kand war, gouf et keen Internet.

When I was a child there was no internet.

Wéi ech jonk war, gouf et keen Internet.

When I was young there was no internet.

Wéi ech 20 Joer al war, gouf et keen Internet.

When I was 20 years old there was no internet.

Now you may have heard the word wann which means as well
“when”. When we use wann we talk about things that happen either
in the present so regularly or in the future. I give you an example for
something happening regularly. Example:

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Wann ech hongereg sinn, iessen ech eppes.
When I am hungry I eat somtehing.

In English you would translate it as “if I am hungry”….So wann is

also used as “if”. Luxembourgish does not have another if. For us
“when” and “if” are the same thing. For us it is a time but also a
possibilty. Let’s do another couple of examples with wann:

Wann ech am August Congé hunn, wëll ech 4 Wochen an

Australien verbréngen.
When I have vacation in August, I want to spend 4 weeks in Australia.

And here an example to talk express a possibility:

Wann et muer reent, ginn ech net lafen.

If it is raining tomorrow I am not going to run.

So only use wéi when talking about something which happened in

the past.

Listen to video to practise these translation exercises:

Has du gutt Punkten an der Schoul?

Did you have good marks at school.
       

Jo, ech hat ëmmer gutt Punkten an der Schoul. Ech war e Streber.
Yes, I always had good marks at school. I was a ….

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E Streber is a pupil that is always very good at school and works
hard and sits in the front row.

Wat war däi Beruffswonsch, wéi s du e Kand waars?

What was your carreer wish, when you were a child?

Here we have “when you” which translates when talking in the past
by wéi s du. We put an s between wéi. This only works for du.
And you have the same rule with wann and du:

Wann s du hongereg bass, iess en Apel.

If you are hungry, eat an apple.

Don’t worry to much about this. Luxembourgers like to make the

language flow. And the more you will hear the language the
more you will come accross the same pattern and so get used to
the language.

Wéi ech 15 Joer al war, war mäi Beruffswonsch Pilot.

When I was 15, my carreer wish was pilot.

Wéi al waars du, wéi s du däin éischten Handy kaaft hues?

How old were you when you bought your first mobile phone?

Ech war vläicht 28, wéi ech mäin éischten Handy kaaft hunn.
I was maybe 28, when I bought my first mobile phone.

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Gouf et am 18. Joerhonnert Kaffismaschinnen?
Were there coffee machines in the 18th century?

Also am 18 Joerhonnert gouf et keng Kaffismaschinnen.

Well, there were no coffee machines in the 18th century.


Useful small talk conversation for you to engage with a

colleague or a friend already next Monday:

Wéi war däi Weekend?

Mäi Weekend war ganz flott. D’Wieder war immens gutt an ech
war de ganzen Dag dobaussen.

Or an alternative answer could be if the weather was bad

Wéi war däi Weekend?

Majo, zimlech roueg. E  Samschdeg den Owend ware mir bei
Frënn. An e Sonndeg war d’Wieder jo net immens an esou si mir
gemittlech doheem bliwwen.

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