In the German language, a modal particle is an uninflected word used mainly in spontaneous spoken language in colloquial registers. It has a dual function: reflecting the mood or attitude of the speaker or narrator, and highlighting the sentence focus. A modal particle's effect is often vague and dependent on the overall context. Speakers sometimes combine several particles, as in doch mal, ja nun, or ja doch nun mal. They are a feature typical of the spoken language. Most German words can be translated to English without problem, but modal particles are a challenge to translate because the English language has no real equivalent to them.
Halt, eben, einmal and nun einmal imply that the fact expressed in a sentence cannot be changed and must be accepted. Halt and nun mal are more colloquial than eben. In English, they could be rendered to "as a matter of fact" or by a "happen to" construction. Ja indicates that the speaker thinks a certain fact should already be known to the listener and intends the statement to be more of a reminder or conclusion. Einmal, shortened mal also indicates a certain immediacy to the action or even implies a command. On the other hand, it can give a kind of casualness to a sentence and so making it sound less blunt. Doch can have several meanings. For one, it can be used affirmatively, or it can convey emphasis, urgency or impatience, or it can serve as a reply to a real or imagined, or pre-emptively answered, disagreement, hesitation, or wrong assumption on the part of the listener, or other people. In other situations this can have different effects. Conversely, doch can also express doubt and, in writing, the affirmative and doubtful meanings can be ambiguous and depend on context. In speech, the different meanings of doch can be told apart by different emphases. In this way, doch can be similar to stressed schon, but schon implies an actual qualification of the statement, often made explicit in a phrase with aber : This is not to be confused with the adverbial meaning of, unstressed, schon: already. However, at least in writing schon "already" must either be made unmistakable by the context, e. g. by additional adverbs, or replaced by its equivalent bereits. In other contexts, doch indicates that the action described in the sentence was, in fact, unlikely to occur: Gar used to intensify a statement, the completeness, or a total lack of something. Used at the beginning of a sentence, especially in literary, it sometimes can have a different meaning. In that case it often is interchangeable with sogar or ganz: Rein often precedes gar; used to point out the total lack of something. Ich habe reingar nichts gemacht! Total besides its use as an adjective and adverb, it can also act as a modal particle indicating irony. Its best to be translated as "well", "really" or "let me think...". Aber, when not used as a conjunction, is very similar to doch. It conveys a meaning of disagreement to a previously-stated or implied assertion. Alternatively, aber can be used to show surprise. Sowieso, ohnehin or eh, meaning "anyway", implies an emphasized assertion. Especially in the South, eh is colloquially most common. All these can be enforced by a preceding doch. Vielleicht, as a modal particle, is used for emphasis and should not be confused with the adverb vielleicht : But: Fei is a particle peculiar to Upper German dialects. It denotes that the speaker states something important that might be a surprise for the listener. To give an adequate translation even into Standard German is difficult; probably, the best substitute would be to use understatements with strong affirmative meaning. In English, translations to "I should think" or "just to mention" seem possible, varying from context. Wohl is often used instead of epistemic adverbs, such as vermutlich or wahrscheinlich. It is also used to emphasize a strong disagreement. Literal translation with "probably" or at least with "seemingly" is possible. Note on mal: The colloquial shortening of einmal to mal is not considered standard.
