Episode Ep 48 October 31, 2024 15 min 53s

3 Important Rules about Word Order - Part 2

From Luxembourgish with Anne PODCAST Luxembourgish with Anne

In the last episode, we covered the 3 key rules for word order in Luxembourgish independent clauses. Now, we dive into dependent or subordinate clauses. But what does that mean? 🤔

Subordinate clauses are those parts of a sentence that can’t stand alone and need another part to complete their meaning. These clauses bring a new set of word order rules in Luxembourgish, and here’s an important tip: 🔑 The conjugated verb is always placed at the end of a subordinate clause.

Curious to learn more? Tune in to master these more advanced sentence structures!

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A Subordinate Clause is introduced by

a subordinating conjunction: datt, ob, well, wann, etc

or in the case of relative clauses by a relative pronoun deen, déi, dat.

Here are some examples of subordinate clauses in Luxembourgish and English. Notice that each Luxembourgish subordinate clause (in bold type) is set off by a comma.

Examples:

a) Ech weess net, ob hien haut kënnt. I don’t know if / whether he comes today.

b) Ech ginn haut net an d’Schwämm, well ech krank sinn. I don’t go to the swimming pool today because I am sick.

c) Dat ass de Mann, dee mir gëschter gesinn hunn. That’s the man (that/whom) we saw yesterday.

d) Wann d’Wieder schéin ass, ginn ech lafen. – If the weather is good, I’ll go running.

As you can see above, a Luxembourgish subordinate clause always starts with a subordinating conjunction and ends with the conjugated verb.

The ONE thing you must remember is that when a sentence starts with a subordinate clause, as in example d), the very first word after the comma (before the main clause) MUST be the verb: Wann d’Wieder schéin ass, ginn ech lafen.

Subordinating & other Conjunctions

One important aspect of learning to deal with subordinate clauses is to be familiar with the subordinating conjunctions that introduce them.

All of the subordinating conjunctions require the conjugated verb to go at the end of the clause they introduce.

Learning Tip:

Another technique for learning conjunctions is to learn the ones that are NOT subordinating, called coordinating conjunctions, since there are fewer of those. The coordinating conjunctions with normal word order are:

awer / mee (but), oder (or), entweder/oder (either/or) an (and).

Examples:

Meng Eltere waren och am Kino, awer ech hu si net gesinn. – My parents were also at the movies, but I didn’t see them.

Du kanns mir d’Suen direkt ginn, oder du bezils dono. – You can give me the money straight away or you can pay later.

Entweder du waarts hei op eis, oder du gees mat. – Either you wait for us here, or you come with us.

Remark: After an, the subject (if it remains the same) can often be omitted because it is understood, so the verb often follows it immediately:

Ech iesse moies eng Schmier an drénken dobäi Téi. – I eat a slice of bread in the morning and to that I drink tea.

The word wéi is also used in comparisons (méi grouss wéi, bigger than), in which case it is not a subordinating conjunction. As always, you have to look at the context in which a word appears in a sentence.

Learn the most important Coordinating & Subordinate Conjunctions and practice with many exercises with my

10-Day-Course: Basics of Luxembourgish Sentence Structure