Verneinung mit net, keng und näischt

English says "not" with a helper verb ("I don't know") and "no" in front of nouns ("I have no time"). Luxembourgish has no helper verb at all, and it splits the work the same way: net negates the verb or the sentence, keen and keng negate a noun.

Word	Use	Example
net	not	Ech sinn net midd. - I'm not tired.
keen / kee	no, not a (masculine and neuter nouns)	Dat ass kee Problem. - That's no problem.
keng	no, not a (feminine and plural nouns)	Ech hu keng Zäit. - I have no time.
ni	never	Hien ass ni doheem. - He's never at home.
näischt	nothing	Ech gesinn näischt. - I can't see anything.

No "do" in sight

"I don't understand" is Ech verstinn net - literally "I understand not". The conjugated verb stays where it is and net follows it. With an object, net usually comes after the object: Ech kennen hien net - I don't know him. Ech drénke Kaffi net gär - I don't like coffee.

net or keen?

If English could say "no" or "not a/any" in front of the noun, Luxembourgish uses keen/keng, not net:

• Ech hunn en Auto. → Ech hu keen Auto. - I don't have a car.
• Mir hunn Hënn. → Mir hu keng Hënn. - We don't have any dogs.

*Ech hunn net en Auto is the typical English-speaker translation of "I don't have a car", and it sounds wrong. Note that keen obeys the n-rule like the article en it is built on: keen Auto, but kee Problem.

Answering with no

"No" on its own is nee: Wëlls du e Kaffi? - Nee, merci. - Would you like a coffee? - No, thanks.