Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Witzige/Wichtige Worte on Wednesday I: "Doch!"

doch: still, yet, however, on the contrary (can mean any one of these or multiple/all at the same time)

"Doch" is honestly one of the most useful words in the German language. You can stick in nearly countless sentences and phrases to add emphasis and/or cut corners. It's primarily used to negate a negative statement. This word is so pragmatic in the German language, I have to stop myself from using it in English conversations nearly every day. Let me give you an example from a few weekends ago.

My brother and his girlfriend were introducing me to an old high school friend of his. The conversation went something like this. (Parts written in italics were thoughts.)

Brother: Hey, Friend, this is my sister.
Friend: What? No way! I didn't know you had a sister!!!
Brother: Yeah, a lot of people don't.
Friend: I don't believe you! She's not your sister!
Me: Doch! I'm totally his sister.
Friend: Nuh-uh!
Me: Doch. No, really.
Brother: Dude, she's my sister.
Friend: She might be a cousin, but not your sister!
Me: Doch!
Girlfriend: Seriously, she's his sister.
Friend: No way!
Me: Doch!
It took showing this guy my and my brother's driver's licenses to convince him we're actually siblings.

But, that's not the only way to use doch. You can use it to put emphasis on something. Take the sentence "So you do want me to pick up dinner on the way home." The emphasis on "do" implies that the other person didn't want it at first, but changed their mind. If the English language had a direct and accurate translation of doch there would be no need for verbal emphasis, and the sentence would like this "So you want me to doch pick up dinner on the way home." Practical, no?

Doch. Very handy. Very versatile. Definitely a word we should adopt. I mean, we've already taken words like Doppelgänger, Zeitgeist and Sauerkraut. Doch is just the next logical step.

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