Luxembourgish vocabulary for beginners: 90+ words and phrases

Luxembourgish vocabulary for beginners starts with 90+ high-frequency words and phrases: greetings, yes and no, numbers, family, work, directions and café orders. Every item below comes from the six free MoienLab lessons, which come with Luxembourgish audio.

How to use these lists

Learn each noun together with its article, exactly as written: the lessons show de, den or d’ with each word, so you hear and say the pair as one unit. Say every line out loud after the audio. Cover the English, say the Luxembourgish, then uncover the English to check. The Sproochentest is an oral exam, so passive recognition is not enough: the words you can say are the words that count.

Greetings and polite words

Moien sounds close to "moy-en": keep it short and friendly. It works in formal and informal situations, so it is the safest default greeting.

The letter ë is a soft, central vowel: in bëssen, keep it light rather than stressed.

Four phrases that start a conversation

Dir is the polite "you" and du is the informal one. An Iech? is the polite "and you?", and with friends or classmates you will often hear An dir?

Introduce yourself

Use Wéi heescht Dir? with staff, officials and teachers, and Wéi heeschs du? with friends and classmates. Swap Spuenien and Spuenesch for your own country and languages.

Numbers and contact details

Practise numbers in chunks: 0 to 5 first, then 6 to 10, then the decades zwanzeg and drësseg. When you give a phone number, slow down and read it digit by digit: that is normal in Luxembourgish and clearer than saying a long number. Kënnt Dir dat widderhuelen? is your repair phrase whenever you miss information.

Family, work and routine

Meng goes with feminine nouns like Fra and Famill, and mäi with masculine and neuter nouns like Mann. Schaffen means to work, so you can talk about your job before you know many job titles.

Directions and getting around

Answers to a direction question are usually very short, so do not wait for a full sentence before you say merci. Entschëllegt followed by a Dir question is the polite default when you ask a stranger.

Café and shop basics

Ech hätt gär… is a polite "I would like…" pattern, and w.e.g. makes any order sound polite without a long sentence. Staff often answer with a bare Gären, which is friendly, not curt.

One spelling pattern you will notice

In the lessons you see Ech heeschen Anna next to Ech heesche Sofia. The final -n may drop before many consonants, and the lessons show it where it happens: Ech drénke moies Kaffi and Ech bezuele mat Kaart lose the -n before moies and mat. Listen for it in the audio and say the line as written. You do not need a rule to start: the pattern becomes automatic as you repeat whole phrases.

A seven-day plan for the first 91 items

One list a day, matched to the free lesson that teaches it with audio:

Use the same loop every day: listen to the line, repeat it, cover the English, say the Luxembourgish again and check. The six lessons add up to 81 minutes, which is under 15 minutes a day.

From these words to Sproochentest answers

The A2 speaking test asks you to introduce yourself and talk in simple terms about family, living conditions, education and occupation. The lists above are that material in its smallest form: your name, your country, your family, your work, where things are and what you order. Each phrase becomes the first sentence of a longer answer in the A2 lessons.

Start with the free level test: 12 questions across A1, A2 and B1 in under 8 minutes, with no account. The six free lessons cover every list on this page, and Full Access continues from there with all 57 lessons, A2 oral practice on eight topics, four B1 listening sets and a timed mock exam for 59 € over 12 months, with one payment and no subscription. See Full Access.