Alphabet und Aussprache

Luxembourgish uses the same 26 letters as English, plus three accented vowels of its own: ä, é and ë. You will also meet ö and ü, mostly in words taken over from German. Spelling is far more regular than in English: once you know what a letter or a vowel pair stands for, you can read a new word aloud.

The vowels that need attention

Spelling	Sound	Example
ë	[ə], the short "uh" in English about	Lëtzebuerg - Luxembourg, Mëttwoch - Wednesday
é	[e], a closed "e", close to French été	Kéier - time (as in "one time"), éischten - first
ä	[æ], close to the vowel in English cat	Bäcker - baker, Äppel - apples
äi	[ɑɪ], like English eye	Zäit - time, Wäin - wine
ei	[æɪ], between "eye" and "ay"	Leit - people, Freideg - Friday
ou	[əʊ], like British English go	Rous - rose, grouss - big
ue	[uə], "oo" gliding into "uh"	Schueberfouer - the big August fair in the capital, fueren - to drive
ie	[iə], "ee" gliding into "uh"	iessen - to eat, Bier - beer

The country's own name is the best practice word: Lëtzebuerg has two schwas, and the ue is a glide, not two syllables. Say "LUH-tsuh-boo-urk", with the stress on the first syllable, where Luxembourgish puts it in most native words.

Consonants that differ from English

• w sounds like English "v": wat - what, Woch - week.
• v in native words usually sounds like "f": vun - from, véier - four.
• z is "ts": Zäit sounds like "tsite".
• j is English "y": Jo - yes.
• ch has two values. After e, i, ä, ë it is a soft hiss close to English "sh": ech - I, mech - me. After a, o, u it is the rough sound of Scottish loch: Nuecht - night.
• A final b, d, g loses its voice: Hond - dog ends in a "t" sound.

The disappearing n

One thing you will notice at once on signs and menus: a word that ends in -n sometimes drops it. Ech sinn doheem - I'm at home, but Ech si midd - I'm tired. This is the Eifeler Regel, the n-rule, and it is part of the spelling: the -n is written only where it is pronounced. It has its own topic; for now, read every word exactly as it is written.