Start learning Luxembourgish by looking at common verbs

It can be a bit frustrating when you start learning a new language. It just seems that there is so much to learn before knowing even the basics. Where do you start? And how do you know if you’ve made any progress?

There must be thousands of angles from which to ‘attack’ a new language. You could learn how to say ‘hi’, how to introduce yourself, how to name the objects around you, how to order ‘eng Schockelasrull’ (you know those delicious chocolate-filled croissants at the bakery…), how to ask questions, how to pronounce the letters of the alphabet,… The important thing is that you start somewhere and keep learning something new every day.

Today, we will look at a common-verb list you can find on the Infolux website. Infolux has put together a list of 225 basic, common Luxembourgish  verbs, all of which you can find in the book Lëtzebuergesch fir all Dag.

When you click on a verb, you’ll be able to see the German, French and English translations of it and how this verb is conjugated in each and every tense. 

If you are a real beginner who is just starting out to learn Luxembourgish, you can use this list to locate verbs you personally use every day (‘to dance’ might not be one of them, but ‘to be’ and ‘to have’ surely are) and memorize them in the present tense or start by forming sentences with them.

If you are a more advanced learner already, you could use the list as a check list to see how many verbs you can conjugate correctly and how many you know the meaning of. Ticking off verbs you already know will give you a sense of achievement and if you repeat this exercise in a few months, you’ll be able to see how many new verbs you have learned in the mean time.

Learning verbs can be a bit tedious and boring but memorizing them, even drilling them, is usually a necessary step for learning a language. There are ways to spice it up. You could, for example, come up with a sentence for each verb (‘ech hunn e Portmonni’ - ‘I have a wallet’) which adds a little more context and plain meaning to your learning. However, sometimes, you just need a quick way to memorize or rehearse a few verbs, especially when you’re waiting for your train or sitting in an airplane. This is, in no way, an invitation for you to go through a two-hour drill of 50 verbs. Depending on how fast a learner you are, you could for example, add five new verbs a week to your repertoire.

I have previously written about how to memorize verb conjugations via story telling but here is another method for just plain verb drilling:

The flash card system for learning and rehearsing verbs at home or on the go

• Click on this link: http://www.studyblue.com/#flashcard/edit/8923221

• Yes, you have to sign up, but it’s fast and free

• Open the flash cards called ‘to be, to have, to want in the present tense’

• Review the information once or twice simply by reading

• Then start questioning yourself on what you know and what you don’t know by flipping the flash cards and giving a thumbs up or down depending on whether you remembered or didn't remember the verb 

• Test yourself by taking a quiz

I should say that I am not affiliated with StudyBlue and that there are plenty of other make-your-own-flash-card programs out there. I like StudyBlue because it's free and they have well-designed iPhone and Android apps to study on the go. If you find another program that you like better, let me know.