Doch is my favorite German word. I really wish we had an equivalent in English, but we don’t. To explain, I’ll start off with a riddle for native English speakers.
Imagine a friend comes up to you, and asks, in English:
“So you’re not coming to the party?”
But you are! You are going to the party! How do you correct her in a single word?
It’s not possible. Think about it:
- If you say “yes,” she might think you mean “yes, you’re right, I’m not coming to the party.”
- If you say “no,” she might think you mean “no, I’m not coming to the party.”
In practice, most English speakers I ask tell me they’d just repeat the phrase. “I am, actually.” “No, I am coming.” Or “yeah, I am coming to the party.” What a mouthful!
Now imagine the friend re-asks the question in German:
“Kommst also nicht zur Party?”
Remember, you are coming to the party! It’s easy to correct her:
“Doch.”
Doch is the word used to correct someone when they falsely assumed the negative, just like nein is the word used to correct someone when they falsely assumed the positive:
Kommst also zur Party? (“So you’re coming to the party?”)
Nein, leider nicht. Ich habe zu viel zu tun. (“No, sorry. I’m too busy.”)
I actually think the closest English word to this usage of doch is one that disappears from most native English speakers’ vocabulary around the age of 7 or 8. Imagine two kids arguing on the preschool playground:
“I have infinity-thousand-million dollars.”
“Nuh-uh!” (Hast du nicht!)
“Yuh-huh!” (Doch, habe ich!)
The French have si, the Germans have doch, the kindergartners have yuh-huh, and we snooty, English-speaking adults have nothing. I say we flaunt our loss in the linguistic lottery, and embrace our inner child. Or learn German, ya know!
For the sake of being comprehensive, I’ll add that doch has other meanings as well.
- Es hat also doch nicht geregnet, obwohl es in der Wettervorhersage stand.
(“So it didn’t end up raining after all, even though they forecasted it to.”) - Sie kam mir sehr sympathisch vor, doch auch irgendwie ein bisschen traurig.
(“She seemed very nice, yet a little sad somehow, too.”)
Translating it as a particle within a phrase can be a little slippery. Often it doesn’t have a direct correspondence in English, and ends up coming over more in the tone of the sentence as a whole.
- Wie es aussieht wird Donald Trump doch nicht der nächste Präsident. — Habe ich doch gesagt.
(“Looks like Donald Trump won’t be our next president after all.” — “I tried to tell you.”) - Mama, in den Sommerferien sollten wir eine Reise nach New York machen! — Junge, du weißt doch, dass wir uns dieses Jahr keinen Urlaub leisten können.
(“Mom, we should go to New York over summer break!” — “Son, you know we can’t afford a vacation this year.”) - Soll ich dir zeigen, wie das geht? — Schaffe ich alleine, ich bin doch kein Kind mehr.
(“Want me to show you how?” — “I can do it by myself, I’m not a little kid any more.”) - Sei doch endlich mal still.
(“Oh, will you be quiet.”) - Du schreibst mir doch, oder? — Natürlich.
(“You will write me, won’t you?” — “Of course.”) - Dann danke ich Ihnen, Herr Obama, für die Hilfe. — Ach, sag doch du zu mir. Ich bin Barack.
(“Thanks for the help, Mr. Obama.” — “Aw, you can call me Barack.”)
