Imperativ: Aufforderung und Bitte

English has one command form for everybody: "Come in!". Luxembourgish has one for a person you call du and another for dir or Dir, and the polite form is the Dir one.

The du form is the verb without its ending: kommen → komm, maachen → maach, schreiwen → schreif. The dir/Dir form is the same as the present-tense dir form, without the pronoun: dir kommt → Kommt!

The verb "to be" has its own forms: Sief roueg! - Be quiet! (du), Sidd roueg! (dir).

Separable verbs

The prefix of a separable verb goes to the end of the command, the way English phrasal verbs put "up" or "in" after the verb: Maach d'Dier zou! - Shut the door! (zoumaachen). Stéi op! - Get up! (opstoen).

Making it polite

A bare imperative can sound brusque in Luxembourgish too. Add "please": wannechgelift, one word in today's spelling and abbreviated wgl. It works with du and Dir alike.

• Gitt mir eng Bouneschlupp, wannechgelift. - A bean soup, please.
• Gëff mir d'Salz, wannechgelift. - Pass me the salt, please.

"Let's..."

For a suggestion that includes yourself, Luxembourgish uses komm or kommt with the mir form: Komm, mir ginn heem! - Let's go home!

The English-speaker mistake to avoid is adding the pronoun to a du command (*Komm du eran!) out of habit from questions; the plain stem is enough.