21
votes
Accepted
What's the difference between "noch" and "immer noch?"
Sie isst immer noch.
Both immer and noch are used as modal particles in this sentence. I introduce the modal particle gerade to show the difference.
Sie isst. → She eats.
Sie isst gerade. → She is ...
- 55.8k
19
votes
Das ist ja wohl nicht dein Ernst - meaning of particle "ja"
This word is a modal particle. Here on German Stackexchange we already have 80 questions dealing with this part of speech: modal particles on German.SE
There is an article about Modalpartikel in ...
- 120k
17
votes
When to use the word "mal"? How does it change the meaning?
The addition of the word 'mal' does not directly change the meaning in this context. It does, however, change the underlying tone of the statement.
A sentence like
Frag mal dort nach.
makes your ...
- 359
11
votes
Accepted
"Jetzt" als Bezug auf die Vergangenheit?
Ich würde das "jetzt" in diesem Beispiel nicht als Adverb der Zeit verstehen, sondern als Partikel, wie zum Beispiel auch in
Wo habe ich denn jetzt wieder meine Brille hingetan?
In DWDS ...
- 18.1k
10
votes
Accepted
„Was ist bitte daran hübsch?“ – Funktion von „bitte“
Im Internet gilt gemeinhin die Regel assume good faith, an die man sich auch hier halten könnte. Nehmen wir den Satz »Was ist daran hübsch?«, denn dieser kann auf mindestens zwei Arten verstanden ...
- 38.4k
9
votes
What's the difference between "noch" and "immer noch?"
"noch" means that the eating is ongoing, but focuses on the fact that she'll be stopping at some future point in time.
"immer noch" means that the eating is ongoing and has done so ...
- 14.7k
9
votes
Accepted
„Puh! Da waren die beiden aber erleichtert!"
puh
The word »puh« is an interjection that can mean a lot. Here it is a sound to express relief. It can be translated as »phew«.
da
The word »da« is an adverb. It can be used:
local
Siehst du diese ...
- 120k
8
votes
Accepted
What does "doch sicher" mean?
Doch does actually not mean "surely" in this context. It strengthens the emphasis on the "sicher" here which is something different.
Du kennst sicher den Rudi?
Would mean very much the same thing ...
- 61.9k
7
votes
Looking for extensive discussion of German modal particles
From online resources there is an almost complete list of particles including usage examples from canoonet. On further search of any particle from these lists Canoonet will present direct links to ...
- 70k
7
votes
Accepted
Is it rude/weird to say only "danke" instead of "danke schön"?
“Danke” is perfectly fine and just as good as “danke schön”. If you hear predominantly the latter then that may be a regional preference.
If you want to strengthen it a bit, you can say “vielen Dank”,...
- 20.3k
7
votes
Das ist ja wohl nicht dein Ernst - meaning of particle "ja"
The Duden page that you linked also offers synonyms for the two meanings, which are:
3a) doch, bekanntlich
3b) wirklich; tatsächlich
As a native speaker of German, I was not aware of that many ...
- 171
6
votes
Accepted
What does “aber” mean in this context?
Taken out of context, the "aber" has no meaning at all. The literal translation of
That's not what I ordered.
is
Das habe ich nicht bestellt
"Aber" is a conjunction or a modal particle (and ...
- 1,210
6
votes
Accepted
Difference between "eigentlich" and "ja eigentlich"
"ja" in this case is a so called "particle". It is used as a filler word without deeper meaning just to reinforce the message of the sentence.
It sometimes means something along ...
- 9,428
5
votes
Accepted
Nein, so doch nicht!—No, not at all!
It's rather
No, not like that!
It implies that you're doing something but in the wrong way ("so").
- 177
5
votes
Accepted
Meaning of 'schon' in a response
The word »schon« in this sentence is a modal particle. Modal particles are very rare in English, and you also don't often see them in written German, but in spoken German they are very frequently used....
- 120k
4
votes
"Ich bin doch nicht ..." vs "Ich bin ja nicht ..."?
As far as I can tell, there is no difference in the meaning of both phrases.
While "ja" means more a form of approval, "doch" is commonly being used to express some form contradiction. So in terms of ...
- 71
4
votes
Accepted
Idiomatic usage of “müssen”
The phrase is not correct. The correct meaning would be — as you said — “Du musst nach Berlin gehen.”
The mentioned variant with a comma, as in “Du musst gehen, nach Berlin”, could technically be ...
- 359
4
votes
Accepted
The grammar construction of "weiß überhaupt nicht"
I'm pretty sure your citation is wrong - Can you check again? My version of Freud's text has "ihre damals gewöhnlichen Redensart, etwas Verdrängtes anzuerkennen" as a footnote - So it is not part of ...
- 61.9k
4
votes
Wo er nur bleibt
It is used as a modal particle here. Its meaning as described in DWDS:
General meaning as a modal particle:
dient meist der Verstärkung und oft der Satzbelebung; ohne eigentliche Bedeutung
In ...
- 2,675
4
votes
Das ist ja wohl nicht dein Ernst - meaning of particle "ja"
The sentence expresses incredulity, presumably at the outrageous wrongness of the interlocutor's position. Therefore it's 3 b), astonishment.
- 14.7k
4
votes
How is schon being used here?
Sentences in spoken language are very often ellipses. An ellipsis is a sentence where you omit a part of speech that easily can be reproduced from the context.
For example, the first sentence spoken ...
- 120k
4
votes
Accepted
"Ich werde noch heute den Arzt anrufen." or "Noch im Mai hat sie ihre Dissertation abgegeben."; what is suggested by the usage of 'noch' here?
The commentary you quote is pretty accurate. The "noch" puts emphasis on the fact which it preceeds in a way that means something along the lines of "still" or "even" or &...
- 9,224
3
votes
Accepted
Die Bedeutung von "nur mal so"
Nur mal so bedeutet ohne besonderen Grund.
"Warum lachst Du, oder lachst Du ohne besonderen Grund?"
hat die gleiche Bedeutung wie der Satz aus den Liedtext.
- 630
3
votes
"Ich bin doch nicht ..." vs "Ich bin ja nicht ..."?
Yes, the implication changes subtly.
"Ich bin doch nicht taub" implies that perhaps the asker does believe that Holmes is deaf and half-expected the answer "no". Holmes denies this somewhat testily.
...
- 14.7k
3
votes
„Was ist bitte daran hübsch?“ – Funktion von „bitte“
Den Satz Was ist daran hübsch? kann man im genannten Kontext (Internetforum, Diskussion über ein Bild) als Wertung verstehen, wenn man zu dem auf dem Bild gezeigten Motiv eine emotionale Bindung hat. ...
- 15.8k
3
votes
Why does German have so many modal particles in comparison to other languages?
The answer lies, I am afraid, in refusing the question. In linguistics it sometimes does not make much sense to ask "why". "Why does English put the definite article in front of a word and, in the ...
- 31.1k
3
votes
How to make question sentences in modal verbs
Your second sentence is wrong - The perfect tense construct for modal verbs (like "wollen") follows a special rule that asks for a Ersatzinfinitiv instead of the perfect participle of the modal verb. ...
- 61.9k
3
votes
How to make question sentences in modal verbs
First, examples of questions in first person are a bit awkward, as you had been asking yourself then. Let's put it into second person.
Ich verstehe. Du hast das nicht machen können.
I understand. ...
- 55.8k
3
votes
How to make question sentences in modal verbs
I am not sure if understand your question question right but
Habe ich das nicht machen können?
would be the most direct way to form your first sentence into a question.
Ich habe machen ...
3
votes
Accepted
Eben und halt, was ist der Unterschied?
I assume you're talking about the use of this words for justification or declaring in a sentence: "Das ist halt so" - "Das ist eben so"
In this particular use, there is no difference. I think "eben" ...
- 2,323
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible