gesinn / héieren + Infinitive

Seeing and Hearing Someone Do Something

Level 3

Gesinn or héieren + person + infinitive: Ech gesinn de Bus kommen. Ech héieren hatt sangen. No ze.

How It Works

1. The pattern
Gesinn or héieren in second place, then the object, then the infinitive at the end:

  • Ech gesinn de Bus kommen. (I see the bus coming.)
  • Ech héieren hatt sangen. (I hear her singing.)
  • Mir héieren d'Kanner am Gaart spillen. (We hear the children playing in the garden.)

English uses an -ing form here. Luxembourgish uses the plain infinitive, like a modal verb, without ze.

2. Pronouns
A pronoun object comes early, as usual: Ech gesinn dech all Moien de Bus huelen. (I see you taking the bus every morning.) See pronouns early in the clause.

3. The perfect
The perfect uses hunn. The infinitive goes before the participle, and the participles gesinn and héieren look just like their infinitives:

  • Ech hunn de Bus komme gesinn. (I saw the bus coming.)
  • Ech hunn hatt sangen héieren. (I heard her singing.)

The first infinitive follows the n-rule: komme gesinn (n drops before g), but sangen héieren (n stays before h). Compare loossen + infinitive, which builds its perfect the same way.

4. The verb forms
ech gesinn, du gesäis, hie gesäit; ech héieren, du héiers, hien héiert. See present stem vowel changes.

5. Hearing that something is true
With a datt clause, héieren means to hear that, a piece of news: Ech hunn héieren, datt du plënners. That is a different pattern from hearing someone do something.

Examples (6)

  1. Ech gesinn de Bus kommen.

    I see the bus coming.

    The infinitive kommen goes to the end, without ze.

  2. Ech héieren hatt sangen.

    I hear her singing.

  3. Mir héieren d'Kanner am Gaart spillen.

    We hear the children playing in the garden.

  4. Hues du hien heemkomme gesinn?

    Did you see him come home?

    In the perfect, the infinitive comes before gesinn. Heemkommen loses its n before g.

  5. Ech hunn hatt sangen héieren.

    I heard her singing.

    Sangen keeps its n before h.

  6. Deen héiert sech gär schwätzen.

    He loves the sound of his own voice.

    An idiom: literally, he likes hearing himself talk.

Common Mistakes

  • Adding ze before the infinitive.

    Ech gesinn de Bus ze kommen.
    Ech gesinn de Bus kommen.

    After gesinn and héieren, the infinitive has no ze.

  • Putting the infinitive right after gesinn, as in English.

    Ech gesinn kommen de Bus.
    Ech gesinn de Bus kommen.

    The object comes first, and the infinitive goes to the end of the clause.

  • Using a participle for the second verb in the perfect.

    Ech hunn de Bus komm gesinn.
    Ech hunn de Bus komme gesinn.

    The second verb stays an infinitive: komme(n), not the participle komm.

How It Connects

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

gesinn / héieren + InfinitiveLevel 3Seeing and Hearing Someone Do Something

Learn This First

Before Seeing and Hearing Someone Do Something, learn Letting and Having Things Done: Loossen.

Words in This Pattern

gesinnhéieren