Editing German modal particles

{{Short description|Uninflected words used in colloquial spoken German}}
{{German grammar}}
'''German modal particles''' ({{Langx|de|Modalpartikel}} or ''Abtönungspartikel'') are [[uninflected word|uninflected words]] that are used mainly in the spontaneous spoken language in [[colloquial]] registers in [[German language|German]]. Their dual function is to reflect the mood or the attitude of the speaker or the narrator and to highlight the sentence's [[focus (linguistics)|focus]].

Often, a [[modal particle]] has an effect that is vague and depends on the overall context. Speakers sometimes combine several particles, as in ''doch mal'', ''ja nun'' or ''ja doch nun mal''. It is a feature typical of the spoken language.

Most German words can be translated into [[English language|English]] without any problems but modal particles are a challenge to translate because English has no real equivalent to them.

==List of modal particles==
'''Halt''', '''eben''' and '''einmal'''{{ref|einmal}} (in this context always in full) and '''nun einmal''' (shortened: '''nun mal''') imply that the often-unpleasant fact expressed in a sentence cannot be changed and must be accepted. ''Halt'' and ''nun mal'' are more colloquial than ''eben''. In English, they could be rendered by "as a matter of fact" or "happen to":

:Gute Kleider sind '''eben''' teuer. ("Good clothes are expensive, and it can't be helped." / "Good clothes happen to be expensive.")
:Er hat mich provoziert, da habe ich ihn '''halt''' geschlagen. ("He provoked me so I hit him – what did you expect?")
:Es ist '''nun einmal''' so. ("That's just how it is.")

'''Einmal''', shortened to ''' mal''' (literally "once", roughly "for once"){{efn|The colloquial shortening of ''einmal'' to ''mal'' is not considered standard, unlike for modal particles.}} primarily indicates that the speaker dispenses with temporal precision, it can indicate a certain immediacy to the action or even imply a command. On the other hand, it can give a kind of casualness to a sentence and so makes it sound less blunt:

:Hör '''mal''' zu! (Listen!" or "Listen to me"!)
:Beeile dich '''mal'''! ("Do hurry up!")
:Sing '''mal''' etwas Schönes! ("Why don't you sing something pretty?")
:Schauen wir '''mal'''. (lit.: "Let's take one look." meaning: "Let's just relax and then we'll see what we'll be doing.")

'''Ja''' ("you know"/"everyone knows"/"I already told you") indicates that the speaker thinks that the fact should already be known to the listener and intends the statement to be more of a reminder or conclusion:

:Ich habe ihm ein Buch geschenkt, er liest '''ja''' sehr gerne. ("I gave him a book as, you know, he likes to read.")
:Heidi ist '''ja''' ein Kind. ("Heidi is a child as you can see.")

'''Doch''' can have several meanings. (See also {{format link|Yes and no#Three-form systems}}.) It can be used affirmatively or to convey emphasis, urgency or impatience. It can also be a reply to a real, imagined, or pre-emptively-answered disagreement, hesitation, or wrong assumption on the part of the listener or other people. In other situations, it can have different effects.

Conversely, ''doch'' can also express doubt and in writing, the affirmative and the doubtful meanings may be ambiguous and depend on context. In speech, the different meanings of ''doch'' can be told apart by different types of emphasis:

:Gehst Du nicht nach Hause?  '''Doch''', ich gehe gleich. ("Are you not going home?" "Oh, yes, I am going in a moment".) (Affirmation of a negative question; obligatory.)
:Komm '''doch''' her! ("Do come here!") (Emphatically)
:Komm '''doch''' endlich her! ("Do come on! Get a move on!") (More emphatically and impatiently)
:Ich habe dir '''doch''' gesagt, dass es nicht so ist. ("I ''did'' tell you that it isn't like that." or "I told you it isn't like that, ''didn't I?''")
:Ich kenne mich in Berlin aus. Ich war '''doch''' letztes Jahr dort. ("I know my way around Berlin. I was there last year, after all/as a matter of fact.")

In that way, ''doch'' can be similar to stressed ''schon'' ("indeed"), but stressed ''schon'' implies an actual qualification of the statement, which is often made explicit by a phrase with ''aber'' ("but"):

:Ich war '''''schon''''' auf der Party, aber Spaß hatte ich nicht. ("I was indeed at the party, but I did not enjoy myself.")

That should not be confused with the adverbial meaning of the unstressed ''schon'', "already". However, at least in writing, ''schon'' "already" must be either made unmistakable by the context, such as by additional adverbs, or replaced by its equivalent, ''bereits'':

:Ich '''''war''''' ''schon'' (/bereits) auf der Party, aber Spaß hatte ich (''noch'') nicht. ("I was already at the party, but I hadn't had any fun (yet).")

In other contexts, ''doch'' indicates that the action described in the sentence is unlikely to occur:

:Du bist also '''doch''' gekommen! ("You came after all.")
:Ich sehe nicht viel fern, aber wenn etwas Gutes kommt, schalte ich '''doch''' ein. ("I don't watch much TV, but I do tune in if something good comes on.")

'''Gar''' is used to intensify a statement, the completeness or a total lack of something:

:Ich besitze '''gar''' kein Auto. ("I'm afraid I have no car [at all].")

At the beginning of a sentence, especially in literary contexts, ''gar'' sometimes has a different meaning and is often interchangeable with ''sogar'' or ''ganz'':

:'''Gar''' die Lehrerin hat über dich gelacht! = ''Sogar'' die Lehrerin hat über dich gelacht! ("Even the teacher laughed at you!") Here, ''gar'' does not act as a modal particle.
:'''Gar''' 20 Jahre lebe ich jetzt schon hier. = ''Ganze'' 20 Jahre lebe ich jetzt schon hier.  ("I have already been living here for two entire decades.")

''Rein'' often precedes ''gar'' to point out the total lack of something:

:Ich habe '''rein''' '''gar''' nichts gemacht! ("I did absolutely nothing!")

'''Total''', besides its use as an adjective and adverb, can also act as a modal particle indicating irony. It is best translated as "well", "really" or "let me think...":

:A: Hast du Lust meinen Geschirrspüler auszuräumen? B: '''Total'''...  ("A: Do you want to empty my dishwasher? B: Let me think... no!")
:Ich musste heute drei Stunden beim Arzt warten... hat '''total''' Spaß gemacht... ("Today I had to wait for three hours at the doctor's office... it really was a lot of fun!")

'''Aber''', when not as a conjunction, is very similar to ''doch'' and conveys a meaning of disagreement to a previously stated or implied assertion. Alternatively ''aber'' can be used to show surprise:

: Du sprichst '''aber''' schon gut Deutsch! ("But you do already speak good German!")
: Du sprichst '''aber''' gut Deutsch! ("Wow, do you speak good German!")

'''Sowieso, ohnehin''' or '''eh''', meaning "anyway(s)", implies an emphasized assertion. Especially in Southern German, ''eh'' is colloquially most common. All these can be enforced by a preceding ''doch'':

:Ich hab ihm '''eh''' gesagt, dass er sich wärmer anziehen soll. ("I told him to put on warmer clothes in the first place.")
:Das ist '''eh''' nicht wahr. ("That's not true anyway.")

'''Vielleicht''', as a modal particle, is used for emphasis and should not be confused with the adverb ''vielleicht'', meaning "perhaps":

:Das ist '''vielleicht''' ein großer Hund! (with an emphasis on "Das", "That's quite a large dog!")
But:
:'''Vielleicht''' ist das ein großer Hund. Es ist schwer zu erkennen. ("Maybe that's a large dog. It's difficult to tell.")

'''Fei''', which is no longer recognised as the adverb ''fein'' "finely", is a particle peculiar to [[Upper German]] dialects. It denotes that the speaker states that something important might be a surprise for the listener. Giving an adequate translation even into Standard German is difficult, and the best substitute would probably be to use an understatement with strong affirmative meaning. In English, translations to "I should think" or "just to mention" seem possible depending on context:

:''Des kôsch '''fei''' net macha!'' (Swabian) = Das kannst du (eigentlich wirklich) nicht machen. (You can't do that! / If you do look at it, you really can't do that. / You can't, I should think, do that.)
:''I bin '''fei''' ned aus Preissen!'' (Bavarian) = Ich bin, das wollte ich nur einmal anmerken, nicht aus Preußen. / Ich bin wohlgemerkt (gar) nicht aus Preußen. (Just to mention, I'm not from Prussia.)

'''Wohl''' is often used instead of epistemic adverbs, such as ''vermutlich'' or ''wahrscheinlich'' or to emphasise a strong disagreement. A literal translation with "probably" or at least with "seemingly" is possible:
:Es wird '''wohl''' Regen geben. ("It looks like rain. / It's probably going to rain.")
:Du bist '''wohl''' verrückt! ("You must be out of your mind!")
==Note==
{{notelist}}

==References==
* {{cite journal |first=Fabian |last=Bross |year=2012 |url=http://helikon-online.de/2012/Bross_Particles.pdf |url-status=dead |title=German modal particles and the common ground |journal=Helikon. A Multidisciplinary Online Journal |pages=182–209 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612141914/http://helikon-online.de/2012/Bross_Particles.pdf |archive-date=June 12, 2018}}
* {{cite book |title=Hammer's German Grammar and Usage |first1=Martin |last1=Durrell |first2=Edward |last2=Arnold |year=1991 |publisher=Hodder and Sloughton |isbn=0-340-50128-6}}
* {{cite book|first1=Gordon|last1=Collier|first2=Brian|last2=Shields|title=Guided German-English translation: ein Handbuch für Studenten|year=1977|isbn=3-494-00896-5}}
* Sérvulo Monteiro Resende, ''Die Wiedergabe der Abtönungspartikeln doch, ja, eben und halt im Englischen auf der Grundlage literarischer Übersetzungen'', Dissertation (1995)

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070220164308/http://llt.msu.edu/vol5num3/mollering/ Teaching German Modal Particles]
* {{in lang|de}} [https://archive.today/20120722231808/http://www.canoo.net/services/OnlineGrammar/Wort/Adverb/Partikel/index.html canoonet "Die Partikeln"]([http://www.canoo.net/services/OnlineGrammar/Wort/Adverb/Partikel/index.html Original])

[[Category:Parts of speech]]
[[Category:German grammar]]