Particles

N10

Words like the following are called particles.

bloß, halt, ja, mal, überhaupt, wohl, eben, gerade, aber, ganz, nur, denn, selbst

Particles are not sentence constituents, are not inflected and have no comparative forms.

On a communicative level, particles clarify the intention of the speaker ; on another level, they contribute to the clarification, emphasis, intensification or attenuation of an utterance and the expression of the speaker’s thoughts and feelings (e.g. inner sympathy, impatience, doubt etc.).

The various shades of meaning that can be given to an utterance through the use of the particle doch are presented below.

	Examples
Giving emphasis on requests	Pass doch auf!
Giving emphasis on approval	Ja doch!
Giving emphasis on impatience	Komm doch mal her!
Giving emphasis on a wish	Wäre sie doch da!
Reminder of something known that seems to be forgotten	Sie ist doch kein Kind mehr.
Expression of indignation	Das ist doch nicht mehr zum Aushalten!
Expression of hope for approval	Du hast mich doch nicht betrogen?
Question on a familiar subject, which seems to be momentarily forgotten.	Wie war das doch?

The form of the particles is identical to that of adverbs, adjectives and conjunctions.

		Examples
gerade	Particle	Gerade Kinder brauchen viel Zuneigung.
gerade	Adverb	Er ist gerade gekommen.
ganz	Particle	Die Pizza schmeckt ganz gut.
ganz	Adjective	Er hat die ganze Pizza gegessen.
aber	Particle	Die ist aber dick!
aber	Conjunction	Er ist intelligent, aber faul.