German Emphasizers
An emphasizer is a word which will emphasize or change the meaning of a sentence. Emphasizers are commonly used in the German language. Unfortunately it’s not always possible to translate emphasizers directly. That’s why we tried our best to explain to you the most common German emphasizers in this blog 🙂
The most common emphasizers are: aber, denn, doch, ja, mal and schon.
Let’s look at them closer.
aber
Aber, meaning “but”, is used to emphasize a statement, making the statement more important or have a bigger impact.
For example:
Das ist aber nicht meine Tasche. – This bag is really not mine.
Das ist aber schade. – That’s a real pity.
denn
Denn, meaning “then” is used to emphasize the meaning of a sentence to bring more clarity. It is also used as a conjunction which we won’t explain in this blog. For more information on “denn” as a conjunction read our blog German Conjunctions.
For example:
Wo ist denn die Party? – Where is the party then?
Was ist denn passiert? – What’s happened here then?
doch
Doch, which has no direct translation, can be used in three different ways.
a) It is used as a positive reply to a negative statement or question.
For example:
Hast du nicht die Zeitung gelesen? – Doch! – Haven’t you read the newspaper? – Yes, I have!
Du kannst nicht fahren – Doch! – You can’t drive – Yes, of course I can!
To use doch in these cases, the question or statement must be a negative and the answer must be a positive disagreement with it.
b) It is used to make a question out of a statement.
For example:
Das kannst du doch? – You can do this, can’t you?
c) It is uses to emphasize a command/imperative.
For example:
Hilf ihm doch! – Help him then!
mal
Mal is used to emphasize time specific (now) commands or conversations.
For example:
Hilf mir mal! – Help me now!
Schauen Sie mal… – Look here now…
ja
Ja (yes) is used to positively emphasize a statement.
For example:
Er kann das ja zu Hause machen. – He can do this at home.
Das ist ja einfach. – This is easy.
schon
Schon, meaning already, is used in informal statements often to emphasize something that has just happened or about to happen.
For example:
Wieso macht sie das schon wieder. – Why did she do that again?