Easy Luxembourgish
Level 2
Lesson notes
Lesson 12
Study notes
Learn to use the auxiliary verb “sinn” in the perfect tense
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LESSON NOTES
Mir sinn op London geflunn
In this lesson of Easy Luxembourgish, you will learn to talk in the
past using the perfect tense with the auxiliary verb “sinn”.
There is another auxiliary verb in the perfect tense. One is hunn
and the other one is sinn “to be”. And you use sinn in the exact
same way as hunn. For example:
Ech si gëschter Owend um 10 an d’Bett gaang.
I went to bed at o’clock yesterday evening.
Gaang is the past participle of goen. You can as well hear native
speakers saying gaangen. Now I hear you asking but why do we
use here the verb sinn and not hunn? Let explain this with the
following 3 sentences:
1 Ech sinn op London geflunn.
I flew to London.
2 Ech si mam Zuch op Paräis gefuer.
I took the train to Paris.
3 Meng Kanner sinn haut net an d’Schoul gaang.
My children didn’t go to school today.
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Grammar - Perfect Tense with sinn
So the rule with the auxilary verb sinn is: use sinn when there is a
change of place. All of the verbs that I chose there in the examples
there is a movement or better a change of place involved. It is not just
movement because we could also say that dancing or playing is
movement but we say Ech hunn Tennis gespillt. So it is really when
we went from A to B that we use sinn. So Saz 1: Ech sinn op London
geflunn. Geflunn comes from the verb fléien “to fly”. Saz 2: Ech si
mam Zuch op Paräis gefuer. Gefuer comes from fueren here it means
“to travel”. And the last example is perhaps more obvious because we
are talking about goen and goen involves a movement … even if we
don’t go somewhere like in my example Meng Kanner sinn haut net an
d’Schoul gaang. Use sinn when you change place. Now we use sinn
as well when there is a change of state: If we look at to be born Ech
sinn am August gebuer. I was born in August.
Here are some other verbs which express a change of state:
aschlofen, erwächen, wuessen, opstoen etc
Ech sinn ageschlof.
I fell asleep.
As you know schlofen is “to sleep” and to say that you have slept
you say ech hu geschlof. But here we are looking at aschlofen
which means “to fall asleep”. There is a change of state. We are
going from awake to asleep. Therefore we say Ech sinn
ageschlof. And aschlofen is a separable verb. The ge comes in
the middle ageschlof.
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The opposite of falling asleep is erwächen meaning to wake up.
Erwächen is not separable and in the past it becomes erwächt.
Hien ass erwächt.
He woke up.
Meng Duechter ass 3 cm gewuess.
My daughter grew 3 cms.
Gewuess is the participle of wuessen “to grow”. Children grow
Kanner wuessen but as well plants Planze wuessen plants grow.
And here another last verb expressing a change of state
This is opstoen. Literally this means “to stand up”. And the
participle is opgestan or opgestanen.
Ech sinn opgestanen.
I got up.
Wéini bass du gëschter opgestanen?
When did you get up yesterday?
Ech si gëschter um 6h30 opgestanen.
I got up at 6h30 yesterday.
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Wéini bass du gëschter op d’Aarbecht gefuer?
When did you drive to work yesterday?
Ech si gëschter géint 8 Auer mam Auto op d’Aarbecht gefuer.
I drove around 8 o’clock to work yesterday.
If you are in a hurry and you need to get to the train station very
quickly you would use the verb “to run” which is lafen and the
Partizip is gelaf.
Ech sinn op d’Gare gelaf.
I ran to the station.
Wéini bass du op de Büro ukomm?
When did you arrive at the office?
Ech si géint 8h30 ukomm.
I arrived at 8h30.
Wéini bass du heemkomm?
When did you come home?
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“To come home” is one verb: heemkommen. It is a separable verb.
In the present we have Ech kommen den Owend um 6 Auer
heem. And the past participle is heemkomm.
Ech si géint 5h30 heemkomm.
I came home at 5h30.
As you may have noticed we can add a lot of prefixes to the verb
kommen to change its meaning. Therefore it is important to know
how to conjugate kommen and to know the participle.
Um wéi vill Auer bass du an d’Bett gaangen.
At what time did you go to bed?
Ech si fréi an d’Bett gaangen.
I went early to bed.
Fréi is “early”.
Ech war midd.
I was tired
Here we don’t use the perfect tense. For hunn and sinn we don’t
use the perfect tense we use the imperfect.
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Irregular verbs with sinn
goen gaang(en)
to go
kommen komm
to come
ukommen ukomm
to arrive at destination
heemkommen heemkomm
to come home
fueren gefuer
to drive / to travel
fléien geflunn
to fly
lafen gelaf
to run
schwammen geschwomm(en)
to swim
plënneren geplënnert
to move
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