Irregular Past Participles

Level 2

Common verbs often have their own participle: schreiwen → geschriwwen, drénken → gedronk, iessen → giess.

How It Works

1. With -en and a new vowel

  • schreiwen → geschriwwen (written)
  • bleiwen → bliwwen (stayed)
  • goen → gaangen (gone)
  • verstoen → verstanen (understood)

2. With no ending
These participles have no ending at all. Many of them end in -en in German (getrunken, gegessen, gelesen), but Luxembourgish drops it:

  • drénken → gedronk (drunk)
  • iessen → giess (eaten)
  • liesen → gelies (read)
  • schlofen → geschlof (slept)
  • huelen → geholl (taken)
  • hëllefen → gehollef (helped)
  • fueren → gefuer (driven, gone)
  • schwätzen → geschwat (spoken)

3. With -t but a new stem

  • denken → geduecht (thought)
  • bréngen → bruecht (brought)
  • wëssen → gewosst (known)
  • hunn → gehat (had)
  • sinn → gewiescht (been)
  • soen → gesot (said)

4. The same as the infinitive

  • gesinn → gesinn (seen)
  • ginn → ginn (given, become)
  • héieren → héieren (heard)

Some of these also have no ge-; see Participles Without Ge-. Whether a verb takes hunn or sinn is a separate question: see Perfect Tense With Hunn and Perfect Tense With Sinn.

Examples (6)

  1. Ech hunn e Bréif geschriwwen.

    I wrote a letter.

  2. Mir hunn zesumme Pizza giess.

    We ate pizza together.

    Iessen → giess: ge- shrinks to g- before the vowel, and there is no ending.

  3. Hien huet e Glas Waasser gedronk.

    He drank a glass of water.

    Drénken → gedronk: new vowel, no ending.

  4. Ech hunn de Bus geholl.

    I took the bus.

  5. Wat hues du gesot?

    What did you say?

  6. Ech hunn hien net gesinn.

    I did not see him.

    The participle gesinn looks just like the infinitive.

Common Mistakes

  • Making a regular participle from an irregular verb.

    Ech hunn e Kaffi gedrénkt.
    Ech hunn e Kaffi gedronk.

    Drénken is irregular: its participle is gedronk.

  • Using a regular -t form for schreiwen.

    Hien huet e Bréif geschreift.
    Hien huet e Bréif geschriwwen.

    Schreiwen is irregular: its participle is geschriwwen.

  • Adding the German -en ending.

    Ech hunn e Buch geliesen.
    Ech hunn e Buch gelies.

    The participle of liesen is gelies, with no ending.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Irregular Past ParticiplesLevel 2

Learn This First

Before Irregular Past Participles, learn Regular Past Participles: Ge- ... -t.

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Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

schreiweniessendrénkenhuelensoenhunn