Imperfect verbs & expressing opinions

Spoken Luxembourgish has almost no simple past — it uses the perfect for nearly everything, and keeps the imperfect for just a handful of everyday verbs. Learn those six forms and a set of opinion openers and your B1 answers gain real range.

In speech, the past is the perfect

This is the single most important fact about the Luxembourgish past tense: in normal speech you form the past with the perfect — hunn or sinn plus a past participle — for practically every verb. Ech hu geschafft (I worked), Ech si gefuer (I drove/went), Ech hunn e Kaffi gedronk (I drank a coffee). There is no spoken simple past for these verbs at all.

So do not try to build German-style simple past forms like schaffte or ging — they don't exist in everyday Luxembourgish. The perfect is your default past tense, full stop.

Ech hu gëschter vill geschafft.	I worked a lot yesterday.	perfect with hunn.
Ech si mam Bus op d'Aarbecht gefuer.	I went to work by bus.	perfect with sinn (motion verb).
Mir hunn den Owend zesumme giess.	We ate together in the evening.	perfect is the normal past.

The six imperfect forms you actually need

Only a small set of very common verbs keeps its imperfect (Präteritum) in speech, because the short form is simply more convenient than a full perfect. These are the six to memorise: sinn → war (was), hunn → hat (had), kënnen → konnt (could), wëllen → wollt (wanted), sollen → sollt (should have / was supposed to) and ginn → gouf (became; also et gouf = there was).

They conjugate regularly on that stem: ech war, hie war, mir waren; ech hat, hie hat, mir haten; ech konnt, hie konnt, mir konnten; and the same pattern for wollt, sollt and gouf. You will also hear wousst (from wëssen, knew), which behaves the same way.

Ech war gëschter krank.	I was sick yesterday.	war = imperfect of sinn.
Ech hat keng Zäit.	I had no time.	hat = imperfect of hunn.
Ech konnt leider net kommen.	Unfortunately I couldn't come.	konnt = imperfect of kënnen.
Ech wollt dech uruffen, mä ech hat keng Zäit.	I wanted to call you, but I had no time.	wollt = imperfect of wëllen.

Try it

Gëschter ech ganz midd. (sinn — imperfect)

Imperfect of sinn: war.

Ech net kommen, well ech krank war. (kënnen — imperfect)

Imperfect of kënnen: konnt.

The imperfect in real sentences

Reach for these forms exactly where English would use a plain past of 'be', 'have', 'can', 'want' or 'should'. They are especially handy for setting a scene or giving a reason — Ech war …, Ech hat …, Ech konnt net … — and they sound far more fluent than forcing a perfect where a native speaker wouldn't.

The verb gouf is worth a special mention: et gouf is the everyday way to say 'there was' or 'there were', and gouf on its own means 'became'.

Ech sollt fréier doheem sinn, mä de Bus hat Verspéidung.	I was supposed to be home earlier, but the bus was late.
Um Fest waren immens vill Leit.	There were a huge number of people at the party.
Et gouf e groussen Accident op der Autobunn.	There was a big accident on the motorway.	et gouf = there was.

Expressing your opinion

The examiner will ask what you think, so have a few openers ready. The most useful are Ech mengen, datt … and Ech fannen, datt … (I think / I find that …). For a slightly more formal register use Ech sinn der Meenung, datt … (I am of the opinion that …) or the hedged Ech géif soen, datt … (I would say that …).

All of these introduce a datt-clause, so remember to send the verb to the end (see the article on subordinate clauses). The one exception is Menger Meenung no … (in my opinion …), which is followed by a normal main clause — so the verb comes second: Menger Meenung no ass dat wichteg.

Ech mengen, datt Lëtzebuergesch wichteg ass.	I think that Luxembourgish is important.	datt-clause → verb ass at the end.
Ech fannen, datt d'Wieder hei ze kal ass.	I find that the weather here is too cold.
Menger Meenung no soll ee méi Lëtzebuergesch schwätzen.	In my opinion, one should speak more Luxembourgish.	main clause → verb soll comes second.
Ech géif soen, datt dat keng einfach Fro ass.	I would say that that's not an easy question.
Do sinn ech net d'accord.	I don't agree with that.	quick way to disagree.

Try it

Ech mengen, datt Lëtzebuergesch net esou schwéier . (sinn)

The verb closes the datt-clause.