Translation in over 70 languages
in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Portuguese because it is the country's largest community, English because the financial centre and the European institutions work in it, French and German because they are official here, and some sixty more because families, building sites and clients need them.
70+
Working languages
100 %
Native-speaking translators
3
Official languages in the Grand Duchy
1 hr
To price your pair
The language groups we handle
This page lists only part of what our network handles. If you cannot find your language, write to us instead of giving up.
The official languages
Luxembourgish, French and German. A record issued by a commune may be drawn up in one or the other depending on the period, and all three are in circulation on the same day, at the counter as in the meeting room.
English and European languages
English, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Danish, Swedish, Finnish. English serves the financial centre and the institutions on the Kirchberg as a working language, and a population drawn from everywhere as a common one.
The languages of families here
Portuguese first and by a wide margin, then Italian, Spanish, Serbian, Bosnian, Turkish and Arabic. These pairs keep coming back in civil status, nationality and inheritance files.
Central and eastern Europe
Romanian, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Slovak, Lithuanian. Building sites, road transport, posting of workers, employment contracts and civil status papers.
Asia
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Hindi, Urdu, Persian. These surface in sourcing agreements, equipment manuals, adoption files and records of birth or marriage.
Africa
Swahili, Lingala, Kinyarwanda, Wolof, Amharic, Tigrinya, Somali. Allow extra lead time for these, though we never turn one down simply for being hard to staff.
Which German, which French, which Portuguese?
Same language, different target, and the text misses. Administrative German in the Grand Duchy does not label things the way Berlin does, and Portuguese written for Portugal is not Portuguese written for Brazil, least of all across a civil status record.
French calls for the same caution. The abbreviations and job titles in a text addressed to a commune here are not those of a text written for a French authority. So we always ask first who will read the document, and where, before worrying about the language.
One principle, though, stays untouched: you write into your first language. Speaking German since primary school is not enough to write it for German-speaking readers. The rate, for its part, follows how many professionals cover the pair, far more than the grammar.
- German from here or German from Germany
- Portuguese from Portugal or from Brazil
- Writing into the first language, without exception
- Sworn status verified pair by pair
Three groups and one shared rule
The rate follows how many qualified professionals are available on the pair, not the supposed difficulty of the language.
First group
German, English, French, Spanish, Italian. Professionals in numbers, short deadlines, the bottom of the grid, and rush work workable for most of the year.
Second group
Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Turkish, Arabic, Russian, Ukrainian. Supply holds up, notice grows slightly, and rush work depends on the week's diary.
Third group
Chinese, Japanese, African languages, Central Asian languages. Sworn professionals are scarce on these pairs: notice has to be longer, and the rate reflects it.
The shared rule
In all three cases, whoever writes has that language as a first language. We do not depart from it, even when it makes the search harder.
Working without going through French is entirely routine: German into English, Portuguese into German, Ukrainian into English. Watch out with sworn status, though, which attaches to one specific pair and not to a language on its own. Where no matching entry exists, a relay through a third language is sometimes needed, with the extra stage and the extra time that implies. We check that before pricing, never afterwards.
How your file finds its linguist
Four filters, applied in this order, and never a shortcut on the last one.
- 01
The pair and its variety
Saying German or Portuguese is not enough: we need to know for whom and for which country. The question is in the quote request.
- 02
The subject field
Law, finance, engineering, medicine, public administration. Move a first-rate translator out of his field and he becomes unremarkable, which a reader notices quickly.
- 03
Sworn status
Where the document has to be sworn, we check the Ministry of Justice list for that specific pair, not for the language taken as a whole.
- 04
The review
Someone else with the same mother tongue reads the whole thing against the source. Where a pair is almost impossible to staff twice over, we warn you that this reading will be missing.
Your language appears nowhere?
Tell us in two lines what you need. Our network covers a good number of pairs that are not on this page.
Six constants from one pair to the next
Always a native speaker
People write in the language they acquired first, not the one they studied. The difference is felt on reading, and a foreign reader spots it in a few lines.
Entry verified
On a sworn document we check the entry for the pair concerned. Being on the list in one direction does not mean being on it in the other.
Varieties respected
German from here or from Germany, French from this country or from France, Portuguese European or Brazilian, Spanish from Europe or from the Americas: we ask before the first line.
Rare pairs taken on
Scarcity is not a reason to refuse a language. We announce a longer lead time, then we keep to the date we gave.
One glossary per pair
Each pair has its term list, which grows with every job. The vocabulary is not reopened for debate on each new order.
Rate stated in advance
The rate attaches to your pair, and it appears on the quote ahead of any signature. Every figure is published on the Prices page.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Portuguese come up so often?
Because the Portuguese community is the country's largest and has been settled here for several generations. Birth, marriage and death records, nationality files, estates opened in both countries: the papers move constantly between the Grand Duchy and Portugal. It is our leading pair, well ahead of the rest.
Do you translate into Luxembourgish?
Yes, particularly for texts aimed at the general public, at club and association life, or at a commune's own communication. For official documents, however, French and German remain the languages in which the administration writes and receives. Tell us what the text is for and we will point you the right way.
German from here or German from Germany?
Your readers'. For a commune, a court or an employer in this country it is the German used here, with institution names as they appear on the documents. For a partner in Trier or Frankfurt it is German usage. The gap concerns administrative vocabulary above all, and it gets noticed.
Can you go from one foreign language to another?
Yes, and in this country it is common: Portuguese into English, German into Polish, Italian into French. The limit concerns sworn documents, whose entry covers one specific pair. Where that pair does not exist, a relay through a third language becomes necessary, and the quote spells it out.
How do you check a text you cannot read?
Through a second native-speaking translator, who goes through it with the source alongside and flags what he would have written differently. On a sworn document the signatory's liability is added, and with it his entry. If the pair is too rare for a second reviser to exist, we tell you before the order.
Get your free quote within the hour
A document or a date is all we need. You get the price, the deadline and the form of certification Luxembourg authorities will expect. You decide afterwards.