GermanSentence

B1 Other

Modal Particles

Modalpartikeln

Doch, mal, ja, denn, halt and eben carry no dictionary meaning but colour the sentence with impatience, softening, surprise or resignation. Leaving them out is grammatical and sounds abrupt.

Sentences that use it(2 of 2)

Real sentences from the lexicon. The marked words are what show the rule.

  • central to this sentence C1

    Joachim Rock, Hauptgeschäftsführer des Paritätischen Gesamtverbands, hat da seine Zweifel.

    Joachim Rock, the chief executive of the Paritätischer Gesamtverband, has his doubts about that.

    'Da' here is not local but refers back to the preceding statement, a typical modal-particle use.

    tagesschau.de
  • B1

    In Deutschland trifft das aber auf viele Menschen zu.

    But in Germany this applies to many people.

    aber functions here as a flavouring particle meaning 'though', not as a conjunction.

    tagesschau.de

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