Verben mit trennbarem Präfix

English has phrasal verbs: "get up", "come along", "shut the door". Luxembourgish has the same idea in a stricter form. The infinitive is written as one word with a prefix in front (opstoen - to get up), but in a main clause the prefix splits off and goes to the very end.

When the prefix stays attached

The verb is whole again whenever it is not the conjugated verb in second position:

• in the infinitive after a modal: Ech muss fréi opstoen. - I have to get up early;
• at the end of a subordinate clause: ... well ech fréi opstinn. - because I get up early;
• in the past participle, with ge- inside: Ech si fréi opgestan. - I got up early.

What English speakers get wrong

English lets the particle sit next to the verb ("I get up early"). Doing the same in Luxembourgish gives *Ech opstinn fréi, which is wrong: in a main clause the prefix goes to the end. The other direction is just as common: splitting the verb after a modal, *Ech muss fréi stoen op. After a modal, the infinitive stays whole.

A tip for reading: when a sentence ends in a short word like op, un, zou, mat, an, eran, eraus, look back to the verb in second position; the two belong together and the meaning often depends on both. Hie fänkt alone means nothing much; hie fänkt un means "he starts".