Put on those party hats and revise that awkward small talk you learned in the first few lessons: It's a celebratory 20th instalment of Learn Luxembourgish!
Ee wonnerschéine gudde Moien and welcome to the 20th lesson of Learn Luxembourgish with RTL Today! How wonderful that you've made it to our little student get-together.
If you've followed all of these lessons so far then you will have completed 20 main lessons and 19 grammar lessons after today. Together, we've learned a bit about how to pretend to care about the weather, give and ask for directions, order at restaurants, talk about relatives, discuss politics, book holidays, and much more – all in Luxembourgish!
It is thus high time for a celebration and so today, we will do just that (and pick up a bit of Luxembourgish party vocab while we're at it, of course).
Oh, and don't worry: Despite all of the partying, we didn't forget about Language Basics! You can check out Language Basics 19, which this time takes you on a bit of a journey through the world of Luxembourgish vocabulary… and where it all comes from.
General celebration
There are, of course, various reasons why people might want to celebrate. But some phrases and expressions pop up at almost any kind of party, and we've collected some of them for you right here:
Congratulations!
Gratulatioun! / Felicitatioun(en)! / Gléckwonsch!
Cheers!
Prost!
Here's to… (ex: Here's to a wonderful evening)
Prost op… (Prost op ee flotten Owend)
Well done!
Gutt gemaach!
Hats off to you!
Chapeau!
Seasonal celebrations
Most wishes for seasonal celebrations are structured in a similar way – with one notable exception: birthdays. If you want to wish someone a happy birthday, you would say:
Alles Gutts fir de Gebuertsdag! -> Happy Birthday!
This All(es) Gutts (which basically translates to "all the best") can theoretically be used for other occasions too, but it is mostly associated with birthdays.
For most seasonal greetings and wishes, the sentence structure remains largely the same:
Happy New year!
Prost Neijoer!
Good to know: In the days leading up to NYE, people generally wish each other Ee gudde Rutsch (literally: "Have a nice slide [into the new year]!")
A happy Carnival season!
Eng schéi Fuesent!
Happy Easter!
Schéin Ouschteren!
Happy Pentecost!
Schéi Päischten / Péngschten!
Happy National Day!
Ee schéinen Nationalfeierdag!
Good to know: In the context of celebrating the country, you will also often here the French word Vive, mainly in declarations like Vive de Grand-Duc, Vive Lëtzebuerg! As you may have already guessed, it basically translates to "Long live…".
Happy Holidays!
Schéi Feierdeeg!
As always, you can head on over to LOD.lu to look up any other words in Luxembourgish.
