This post is about modal particles in German and Japanese. Modal particles are used to indicate how the speaker thinks that the content of the sentence relates to the participants’ common knowledge or add mood to the meaning of the sentence.
For example: „ja" is used to indicate that a sentence contains information that is obvious or already known to both the speaker and the hearer.
Like in „Der Hund ist klein“ (the dog is small) „Der Hund ist ja klein“ (as we are both aware the dog is small). Unless we see the dog for the first time in this case „ja“ would indicate a surprise about that.
Both Japanese and German are modal particle heavy languages. Unlike for example English that rarely uses them.
I’ve found out that people tried to match German and Japanese modal particles. Of course a 100% match doesn’t exist and there are always exceptions but I thought the idea that there are similar particles interesting. Most Japanese language resource I use are in English and they can’t transfer that sort of understanding. As a German speaker I found that reading these examples helped me to understand these modal particles on a more instinctively level from a german perspective.
mal and ちょっと can correspond
Both mal, chotto can either be an adverb meaning “to a small/low degree” an both can be used as a modal particle to weaken the strength of a request.
ちょっと窓を開けて。
ちょっとまどをあけて。
Mach mal das Fenster auf
≈ Open the window
の and denn can be similar
Saying a question with denn or with corresponding no, the speaker asks whether the assumed or presupposed proposition is true or not. That is, denn- and no-questions indicate that the speaker assumes that the positive question alternative holds, and utters the question to confirm this with the addressee.
A: I’m going to buy a car!
B: 金はあるのか
かねはあるのか
B: Hast du denn Geld dazu?
≈Do you have money [for that]?
Another property shared by の and denn is that they disambiguate negative polar questions:
映画に行かないのか
えいがにいかないのか
Gehst du denn nicht ins Kino?
≈“Are you not going to the movies?”
etwa (also occurring in questions) include both の and some additional element でも. の marks a presupposed fact in the denn-corresponding case, but an assumption in the etwa-corresponding case.
A: I’m going to buy a car!
B: 金はあるのか
かねはあるのか
B: Hast du denn Geld dazu?
≈“Do you have money [for that]?”
A: Yes!
B: 宝くじでも当たったのか
たからくじでもあたったのか
B: Hast du etwa im Lotto gewonnen?
≈“Is it that you perhaps won the lottery?”
の and denn indicate that the sepaker has evidence (namely the preceding utterance) that something is true, and wants to confirm this with the addressee. On the other hand, etwa indicates that while the speaker again has evidence for something, it presupposes “one of several propositions which seem unlikely”, and the relative unlikeliness of something has to be expressed overtly with でも.
Wohl and だろう can be similar
Intuitively, wohl in assertions indicates that the speaker is not entirely sure whether its proposition holds or not.
Was ist wohl die Wurzel aus 9?
≈“What is the square root of 9?”
In this case the teacher who needs to be considered an expert wants to indicate that the student might not know the answer, thus uncertainty on their part must be assumed.
wohl is compatible with だろう in that both express a certain degree of uncertainty:
ジョンは雨が降るだろうからと思って傘を持って行った。
ジョンはあめがふるだろうからとおもってかさをもっていった。
Da es wohl regnet, nimmt John einen Regenschirm mit.
≈ Because he thinks it will/might rain, John took an umbrella.
You can also use (Wohl+)werden to correspond だろう
昨日メアリはワインをたくさん飲んだだろう
きのうメアリはワインをたくさんのんだだろう
Mary wird gestern (wohl) viel Wein getrunken haben.
≈ Mary will (probably) have drunk a lot of wine yesterday.
明日雨が降るだろう
あしたあめがふるだろう
Morgen wird es wohl regnen.
≈“It will (presumably) rain tomorrow.”
だろう-interrogatives correspond to wohl-interrogatives with fronted ob, which are also expressions of doubt.
この刑事は自分のことを疑っているのでわないだろうか
このけいじはじぶんのことをうたがっているのでわないだろうか
Ob mich dieser Inspektor nicht wohl verdächtigt.
≈“Is this detective perhaps suspecting me”
There is probably still a small difference in this example but I think it is close enough.
A fundamental difference between wohl and だろう lies in the evidential meaning component of だろう, indicating that the speaker has no direct evidence for the truth of the proposition of the respective clause.
だろう and doch
the reminding use of だろう and doch can both be used to remind the addressee of a state of affairs, as it is usually followed by an utterance the comprehension of which depends on this state of affairs
その女の子と一緒に踊っただろう、あれがメアリちゃんよ。
そのおんなのこといっしょにおどっただろう、あれがメアリちゃんよ。
Du hast doch mit diesem Mädchen getanzt. Das war Mary.
≈ “You have danced with that girl. That was Mary.”
君、宿題をやっているだろうね
きみ、しゅくだいやっているだろうね
Du hast doch die Hausaufgaben gemacht, ne?
≈“You have done your homework, haven’t you?
The hybrid status of だろう in that it can correspond to both wohl- and doch-utterances
can thus explained by differences in usage conventions. Reminding だろう is a conventionalized use. Such a use has not developed for wohl. Probably because the speech-act level contrast encoded in doch makes it an obvious candidate for reminding uses
のだ can occur in correspondents for doch, and ja
In a fight:
けど実際そうなんだから
けどじっさいそうなんだから
Aber es ist doch wirklich so!
≈ But it’s the truth, you know!
子供じゃないんだからもうちょっとちゃんとやってくださいよ
こどもじゃないんだからもうちょっとちゃんとやってくださいよ
Du bist doch kein Kind, also mach noch etwas ernsthaft weiter.
≈ You are not a child, so keep trying some more.
Both surprise-ja and its Japanese correspondent ‘surprise-のだ ’ establish, rather than reconfirm, a proposition
(Stepping outside)
あっ！雨が降っているんだ
あっ! あめがふっているんだ
Oh! Es regnet es ja!
≈“Oh! It’s raining!”
ね and ne also have a similar usage in many cases (nicht would be the more polite form of ne; the Bavarian gell can also be used @JuiceS)
Both can be used to seek agreement or confirmation.
寒いですね
さむいですね
Es ist kalt, ne?
≈ it’s cold, right?
@MerryChippus fei ( erzgebirgisch, fränkisch, süddeutsch, oberdeutsch, umgangssprachlich) and よ
Both fei and よ can be used to implie to the listener that what you’re saying is new information or a fresh perspective
The examples are from:
„Function and Meaning of German Modal Particles by their Japanese Correspondents“ by Lukas Rieser
It doesn’t feel as polite and natural to use “then” in that context .