KawiBlog · Family life
Counting in Luxembourgish, from one to ten.
Eent, zwee, dräi, véier, fënnef, sechs, siwen, aacht, néng, zéng: ten words, and your child can count their fingers in the language of their classroom. Tap a card to hear it, then turn it into a game, play, one of the four ways into the language.
The ten cards, with the voice
Each card comes from the Kawi app and plays the official pronunciation from the LOD dictionary. To keep going with the other cards to listen to, from animals to colours, everything is in one place.
How they are pronounced
- zwee and zéng start with a "ts" sound, as at the end of "cats".
- sechs and siwen start with a soft "z", as in "zoo", and the w in siwen sounds like "v".
- véier starts with an "f" sound: here, the v is said as f.
- fënnef: the ë sounds like the "a" in "about".
- aacht ends with the throaty "ch" of Scottish loch.
- néng and zéng end in "ng", as in "sing", without sounding the g.
For every number, the official LOD dictionary has the reference recording.
Three counting games for home
- The stairs. Count each step out loud as you go up. The same count every evening settles in faster than a count done once.
- Fingers. Say a number and let your child show the fingers, then swap: they show, you say.
- Snack time. Count the strawberries or biscuits before eating them. The word sticks to a quantity your child can see and touch.
Numbers also settle in through melody: alternate with Luxembourgish nursery rhymes to sing together.
And after ten?
Eleven is eelef and twelve is zwielef. Thirteen is dräizéng, and twenty is zwanzeg. With the first ten, your child can already count their fingers: the rest can wait until they say them effortlessly.
One, two, three, and the other classroom words.
Kawi lets your child hear the words of school with the official pronunciation, through play, from age 3.