Plurals & comparison

There is no single plural ending in Luxembourgish — but there are five predictable patterns, and the plural article is always d' whatever the gender. Add the méi … wéi comparison and you can weigh two things against each other.

Five plural patterns

Luxembourgish nouns form the plural in five main ways. The good news: in the plural the definite article is always d', no matter what the singular gender was, so you never have to track der/de/d' any more.

The five patterns are: (1) add -en, by far the most common; (2) add -er, almost always with an umlaut on the stem vowel; (3) change the vowel only, with no ending (umlaut plural); (4) add -s, a small class of mostly borrowed words; and (5) no change at all, typical of masculine and neuter words ending in -el, -er or -en.

There is no shortcut for guessing which noun takes which pattern — learn the plural together with the word, the way you already learn the gender.

d'Fra → d'Fraen	woman → women	-en (the default pattern).
d'Strooss → d'Stroossen	street → streets	-en.
d'Kand → d'Kanner	child → children	-er with vowel change.
d'Haus → d'Haiser	house → houses	-er + umlaut (au → ai).
den Apel → d'Äppel	apple → apples	umlaut only, no ending.
de Bam → d'Beem	tree → trees	umlaut only (a → ee).
den Job → d'Jobs	job → jobs	-s (borrowed word).
de Läffel → d'Läffel	spoon → spoons	no change.

Try it

Ech hunn zwee am Gaart. (de Bam)

Bam takes an umlaut plural (a → ee).

Mir hu véier . (d'Kand)

Kand → Kanner (-er with vowel change).

More than and as … as

To compare two things, Luxembourgish does not add an ending to the adjective the way German or English do. There is no gréisser or wärmer — instead you put méi (more) in front of the adjective and wéi (than) after it: méi grouss wéi, méi waarm wéi, méi séier wéi.

For things that are equal, use the frame esou … wéi (as … as). The two words that follow are the plain adjective and the thing you compare with.

A very common exam mistake is copying German and saying als for 'than', or bolting -er onto the adjective. In Luxembourgish the comparison word is always wéi, and the adjective stays unchanged.

Haut ass et méi waarm wéi gëschter.	Today it's warmer than yesterday.	méi + adjective + wéi.
Lëtzebuerg ass méi kleng wéi Frankräich.	Luxembourg is smaller than France.
Hie leeft méi séier wéi ech.	He runs faster than I do.
Si ass esou grouss wéi ech.	She is as tall as I am.	esou … wéi for equal things.
❌ Haut ass et wärmer als gëschter.	(wrong — German-style comparative and 'als').

The superlative: am … sten

For the superlative (the most …), the everyday, adverb-like form is am … sten: am schéinsten, am gréissten, am séiersten. Some adjectives take an umlaut in the superlative (grouss → am gréissten). This is the form you will use most in speaking.

When the superlative sits in front of a noun (attributive), it agrees like an adjective: dee schéinste Bam (the most beautiful tree), dat gréisst Haus (the biggest house).

Am Fréijoer ass d'Natur am schéinsten.	In spring nature is at its most beautiful.
Vun alle Bierger ass den Everest am héchsten.	Of all mountains, Everest is the highest.
Dat ass dat gréisst Haus am Duerf.	That's the biggest house in the village.	attributive superlative before the noun.

The irregular three: gutt, vill, gär

Three high-frequency words compare irregularly and you simply have to memorise them: gutt → besser → am beschten (good → better → best), vill → méi → am meeschten (much → more → most), and gär → léiwer → am léifsten (gladly → rather → most of all).

The gär set is the useful one for preferences: léiwer means you prefer something, and am léifsten marks your top choice. It saves you a whole clause when the examiner asks what you like doing.

Dëse Kaffi ass gutt, mä deen do ass besser.	This coffee is good, but that one is better.
Mä doheem schmaacht mir de Kaffi am beschten.	But at home the coffee tastes best to me.
Ech drénke gär Téi, mä léiwer Kaffi.	I like drinking tea, but I prefer coffee.
Am léifsten drénken ech e Glas Wäin owes.	Most of all I like drinking a glass of wine in the evening.

Try it

De Kaffi ass gutt, awer den Téi ass .

gutt → besser → am beschten.