Are you seeking a professional German course? We specialise in bespoke German lessons and courses designed to help individuals and businesses master the German language and learn about German culture.

If you have already started learning German or experienced German culture, you may have realised that Germans are much more forthcoming than other nationalities. Affirmative or dissenting phrases like a plain Yes or No are much more acceptable than they would be, for example, in English culture. In German, that would, of course, be ‘Ja’ or ‘Nein’.

Have you ever asked a binary question in German that contained a negative and expected a ‘no’ response for an affirmative answer and a ‘yes’ response for a negative one? Are you wondering why, against the odds, you received the answer ‘doch’ instead of the expected response, and why the speaker even stressed that curt reply? Then, the speaker directly countered the negative in your question. Consider this: Sprechen Sie kein Deutsch? Don’t you speak German? The answer was Doch! In English, it would have been: Yes, I do! Here is another example: Wohnen Sie nicht in London? Doch! Don’t you live in London? Yes, I do!

You may also hear a German speaker contradict a statement that is not true using the word ‘doch’. Consider this: Fritz spricht kein Deutsch, meaning Fritz doesn’t speak German. The listener would contradict that statement, as is done in reply to a negative question, with ‘doch’. The English equivalent contradicting that statement would be ‘that’s not right’.

‘Doch’ can also be deployed as a modal particle or flavouring word. The speaker, denying that they speak English and not expecting the listener to disagree, says: Ich spreche doch kein Englisch. I don’t speak English, as you know. Here, the word ‘doch’ is not stressed.

You may hear a speaker stress the word ‘doch’ in a sentence: Heinrich versteht doch Deutsch. Here, the speaker indicates that, contrary to expectations, Heinrich does understand German. Should the speaker state the same sentence without stressing ‘doch’, they expect you to agree.

Wollen Sie kein Deutsch lernen? Doch! Don’t you want to learn German? Yes, I do.

To get doch right in conversation, book a German tutor in London or an online German tutor.