modal particle

/ˈmoʊdl ˈpɑːrtɪkl/

noun

  1. In linguistics, a short, uninflected word that expresses the speaker's attitude, mood, or certainty about the utterance, without adding much concrete meaning. Common in languages such as German, Dutch, and Chinese; English sometimes uses words like 'just' or 'well' in a similar way.

    C1

    countablelinguistics

    • "In German, 'ja' can be a modal particle that shows the speaker expects agreement."B2
    • "Some linguists argue that English does not have true modal particles, only discourse markers."C2
    • "A modal particle makes a sentence sound friendlier or more hesitant."B1

Word family

particlemodalmodality