This guide adapts rules and examples from Microsoft’s Luxembourgish Localization Style Guide (originally written for software/UI localization). The underlying linguistic rules apply universally — to legal contracts, medical documents, marketing copy, and any Luxembourgish translation work. Restructured and reformatted as a general Luxembourgish translator reference by ChatsControl.

Luxembourgish Translation Style Guide — Voice, Word Choice & Common Pitfalls (Legal, Medical, Marketing, IT)¶

TL;DR¶

• Luxembourgish uses German-style nominal capitalization — ALL nouns are capitalized.
• Use LOD (Lëtzebuerger Online Dictionnaire) and the official MEN verb book as authoritative — only verbs there are official; future tense uses ginn (NOT wäert).
• Genitive is rare — use periphrastic dative + possessive (dem Mann säi Buch).
• German-style quotation marks („xxx”); ampersand (&) ONLY in company names, elsewhere replaced by an.
• Numbers: comma for decimals (5,25 cm); period for thousands (1.526).

Register and tone for Luxembourgish translation¶

Luxembourgish register sits between French and German linguistic spheres. Translations should sound like written Luxembourgish — not transliterated French or German. Three voice principles:

• Warm and relaxed — natural, less formal.
• Crisp and clear — write for scanning first, reading second.
• Ready to lend a hand — anticipate the reader’s needs.

Why this matters: Bureaucratic register damages outcomes across spheres. In marketing copy it kills conversion. In patient-facing medical materials it reduces comprehension. In software UI it creates friction. In consumer-facing legal documents plain language is increasingly mandated. Only sworn legal translation and technical specifications retain the older formal register.

Word choice: short forms¶

Use approved terminology from Microsoft Language Portal. Allowed short forms (verify on Portal):

Words to avoid¶

General English avoid-list (apply to Luxembourgish source-to-target mapping):

Sample voice scenarios¶

Addressing the user to take action¶

Promoting a feature¶

How-to guidelines¶

Explanatory text¶

Grammar, syntax, and orthographic conventions¶

Abbreviations¶

Don’t abbreviate: an, oder, eppes, een, or any word users might not recognize. When in doubt, spell out.

Standard abbreviations:

If sentence ends with abbreviation having its own period, NO additional end-of-sentence period.

Special abbreviations:

Acronyms¶

Compound elements (acronyms, abbreviations, numerals) join the following component with a hyphen:

Unlocalized acronyms (commonly understood): - ANSI, ISO, ISDN, DOS, DSL, CD, DVD

Measurement abbreviations:

Adjectives¶

Luxembourgish has attributive vs. predicative adjectives.

• Predicative (with sinn/”to be”): no extra ending.
• Attributive (before noun): change ending by gender/number/case.

With attributive adjective, definite article CHANGES: - feminine d → déi - neuter d’ → dat - plural d’ → déi

Comparative: ANALYTIC with adverb méi: schéin → méi schéin.

Superlative: SYNTHETIC with -st suffix: schéin → schéinst. Attributive needs emphatic definite article + inflected superlative adjective. Predicative uses adjective or am + -sten form: am schéinsten.

Possessive adjectives¶

Examples: - Ech hu menge Kanner hir Bicher schonn all kaaft. - Hie schwätzt mat sengem Bouf sengem Professer. - Dem Hond säi Pelz ass gekämmt ginn.

Avoid possessive marker Ären/Äert/Är unless ownership matters. Use possessives mainly when addressing the user.

Articles¶

Three genders × three cases.

Nominative/Accusative:

Dative:

Unlocalized feature/product names¶

Microsoft product names and untranslated feature names are used WITHOUT articles.

Localized feature names¶

Use terminology most widely used in computer press. Follow Luxembourgish spelling/grammar/syntax when incorporating English terms.

Capitalization¶

In Luxembourgish, ALL nouns are capitalized (German-style). DON’T mimic English capitalization — use Luxembourgish conventions to decide.

When an English noun is capitalized in source and rendered as two words in target, be CONSISTENT — capitalize both, neither, or one. Be consistent within product.

Compounds¶

Compounds should be understandable. Avoid overly long/complex. Elements written as one word, may include linking “s” or “e(n)”. Hyphens for readability or foreign-language elements. Avoid three-element compounds when one element is foreign — use periphrastic constructions.

Conjunctions¶

Starting a sentence with a conjunction (mee, also) is acceptable in conversational tone.

Gender¶

Three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), three cases (nominative, accusative, dative). German-like, no morphological gender distinction in plural.

Genitive¶

Genitive is RARE. Surviving cases: Enn des Mounts (end of the month), Ufanks der Woch (at beginning of week).

Most ownership uses PERIPHRASTIC GENITIVE: dative + possessive determiner.

• dem Mann säi Buch = “to the man his book” = the man’s book

Don’t attach a Germanic genitive ‘s’ to product names — it could be interpreted as name modification.

Localizing colloquialism, idioms, metaphors¶

Three options: 1. Replace with Luxembourgish colloquialism only if perfect/natural fit 2. Translate intended meaning (not literal) 3. Drop if can be omitted without affecting meaning

Modifiers¶

Modifiers are optional elements describing/defining another element. Their removal doesn’t affect grammaticality.

Nouns¶

Capitalized (like German). Inflected for case — shown in determiners/pronouns/adjective endings, partly NOT in nouns themselves.

Plural formation¶

Most nouns form plural with -en or -er. For -er plurals, stressed vowel may change (A→Ä, O→E, U→I).

French-origin loanwords get -en:

Some words invariant:

Irregular:

Prepositions¶

Watch preposition use — English influence causes omissions or word-order changes.

Luxembourgish allows prepositional phrases AFTER the verb cluster in subordinate clauses.

For cities: in German it’s “in Berlin” / “aus Paris”; in Luxembourgish it’s zu Berlin / vu Paräis. Exception: Luxembourg City uses an der Stad.

For countries (with “in”): a Spuenien, an Holland, an der Belsch.

Pronouns¶

Be consistent — many English error messages vary article/demonstrative/possessive use. Match the style in target consistently.

Punctuation¶

Follows German conventions. Space after commas/periods. No space before dots, colons, question marks, exclamation marks (per French).

Ampersand¶

ONLY in company names (Entreprise & Co.). Elsewhere FORBIDDEN — replace with an: Health & Fitness → Gesondheet a Fitness.

Comma¶

Used in enumerations and before subordinate clauses. Separates place from date in letters: “Lëtzebuerg, den 13. September 1987”. Separates DECIMALS.

For thousands: English uses comma; Luxembourgish uses PERIOD.

Colon¶

Introduces lists and explanations. Don’t use to introduce only one idea.

Hyphen / en dash / em dash¶

• Hyphen (Bindestréch) — syllables, compound parts. Non-breaking hyphen (Ctrl+Shift+Hyphen) for compounds like MS-DOS.
• En dash — minus sign with spaces; also Gedankenstrich-style in compound omissions (Gedanken- a Bindestréch = Gedankestréch a Bindestréch).
• Em dash — NOT common in Luxembourgish. Where English uses em dash, use comma or parens.

Ellipsis¶

Use the ellipsis character … (Alt+0133), not three periods.

Period¶

Marks sentence end. When abbreviation ends sentence, only ONE period. No period after IS measurement units (unless at sentence end). No period with acronyms.

Period as THOUSAND separator (6.520) but NOT for years or page numbers.

No period in titles/headings. No additional period when ellipsis ends sentence.

Note: US English uses period as decimal separator; Luxembourgish uses COMMA.

Quotation marks¶

German-style: opening at bottom „ (Alt+0132), closing at top ” (Alt+0147) — different from English “. Punctuation NOT belonging to quoted text goes OUTSIDE the quotation marks.

Three options (priority order): 1. „Gänseféisercher” (bottom-opening, top-closing curly) 2. “Gänseféisercher” (straight, top-top) 3. «Gänseféisercher» (chevrons)

Non-breaking space between chevrons and quoted text.

Parentheses¶

No space between parens and text inside.

Sentence fragments¶

Fragments help conversational tone. Rare in written Luxembourgish; OK in headings/eye-catchers.

Split infinitive¶

Non-finite verbs (infinitives, participles) appear in final position: - Ech hunn en Hutt kaaft.

In subordinate clauses, finite verb + non-finite verbs cluster at end. Luxembourgish allows different word orders when two non-finite verb forms occur together. Prepositional phrases may appear AFTER the verb cluster.

• D’Kand huet hënt net misse schlofen.
• Alles, wat Dir ëmmer wollt wëssen iwwer Lëtzebuerg.

Subjunctive¶

RARELY used in Luxembourgish.

• Et sief dann!
• Sief et mam Vëlo oder ze Fouss, ech kommen net.

Symbols and non-breaking spaces¶

Non-breaking space (  in HTML) prevents word/element wrapping. Use whenever present in US text. Otherwise prefer regular space (non-breaking spaces can cause functionality issues).

• Mr. Fischer / Här Fischer

Verbs¶

Be consistent. Use verb “to be” in such constructions even when English omits.

Continuous operations (English gerund) → Luxembourgish present-tense construction:

Error messages¶

Use consistent terminology. Don’t translate English literally.

Standard phrases¶

Error messages with placeholders¶

Letters carry meaning: %d/%ld/%u/%lu = number; %c = letter; %s = string.

Keys¶

Keyboard shortcut special options¶

Standard shortcut keys¶

Applications, products, features¶

Trademarked. Rarely translated. Sometimes features (IntelliSense™) too.

Version numbers¶

Version Versioun 4.2:

English pronunciation (voice / video)¶

Words¶

Acronyms (as words)¶

Letter by letter (Luxembourgish way)¶

Exceptions (pronounced English-way)¶

URLs¶

Leave out “http://”. “www” → “we-we-wee”. “dot” → “Punkt” (if read). Slash → “Slash”. Hyphen → “Tiret” (French) or “Minus” (German).

Punctuation¶

? ! : ; , implied by voice. En dash (–) for emphasis = comma pause. Spaces around it.

Special characters¶

Use Luxembourgish translations from Microsoft Language Portal.

Reference materials¶

Normative dictionaries:

1. LOD — Lëtzebuerger Online Dictionnaire at lod.lu. The OFFICIAL dictionary from Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale. Takes priority over any other source. Use the referenced main term, avoid variants.
2. Luxdico — fallback if LOD doesn’t contain a term, but contains slang and informal forms that must be AVOIDED in professional translation.

Normative verb lists:

1. Les Verbes Luxembourgeois / D’Lëtzebuerger Verben by Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale (ISBN 9782495000260). The official MEN-endorsed verb book (look for MEN seal on cover). All allowed tenses for Luxembourgish. ANY tense not listed is wrong (e.g. future uses ginn, NOT wäert). Verbs not in this book are SLANG.
2. LOD — verbs found here count as official when not in the verb book.

Informative references:

1. cpll.lu — Conseil Permanent de la Langue Luxembourgeoise.
2. spellchecker.lu/online-checker — online spell checker.

FAQ¶

What’s the modern register for Luxembourgish translation across professional contexts?¶

Clear, friendly, concise. Use everyday Luxembourgish, drawing on the LOD dictionary and the MEN verb book. Avoid German-style overly-formal phrasing and French-style overly-bureaucratic phrasing. Luxembourgers tend to switch between languages; the translation should sound like written Luxembourgish, not transliterated French or German.

Why is the LOD dictionary so important for Luxembourgish translation?¶

LOD (Lëtzebuerger Online Dictionnaire) is the official online dictionary from the Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale. Terms in LOD take priority over any other dictionary. Variants should be avoided — use the main referenced term. Luxdico is acceptable as a fallback, but it contains slang and informal writings that don’t belong in professional translation. Always check LOD first.

How does the Luxembourgish three-gender / three-case system affect translation?¶

Luxembourgish has masculine, feminine, and neuter genders, and three cases (nominative, accusative, dative). These show up on articles, determiners, and pronouns — but not on nouns themselves. Adjectives change endings by gender/number/case. The future tense uses ‘ginn’ (NOT ‘wäert’ — wäert is slang and not in official verb lists). Pay attention to article changes with attributive adjectives (d → déi, d’ → dat for emphatic forms).

How does Luxembourgish handle the genitive case?¶

Genuine genitive is rare and limited to fixed expressions (Enn des Mounts ‘end of the month’, Ufanks der Woch ‘at beginning of the week’). For most ownership relations, use the periphrastic genitive: dative case + possessive determiner. Example: dem Mann säi Buch (literally ‘to the man his book’ = ‘the man’s book’). Don’t attach a Germanic genitive ‘s’ to product names — it could be interpreted as name modification.

What authoritative Luxembourgish language references should I use?¶

LOD (lod.lu) for all general and IT terminology — official dictionary from MEN. Les Verbes Luxembourgeois / D’Lëtzebuerger Verben by MEN (ISBN: 9782495000260) for the official, MEN-endorsed list of permitted verbs and tenses. cpll.lu (Conseil Permanent de la Langue Luxembourgeoise) and spellchecker.lu/online-checker for orthographic checking.

Sources¶

• Microsoft Localization Style Guide for Luxembourgish (PDF)
• LOD — Lëtzebuerger Online Dictionnaire
• Conseil Permanent de la Langue Luxembourgeoise
• Luxembourgish spellchecker