German "nuance words" (Abtönungspartikeln)

In the spoken German language there are a remarkable number of “tone words” (Abtönungspartikeln) that are regularly not to say constantly injected into sentences by speakers of all ages, particularly of the younger generations, to add colouring and nuances to what’s being said.

Most of these special words, as can be seen in the comprehensive table below [1], are words that have an entirely different function in the standard (written) language and that have acquired over time their special usefulness in the spoken language to signify subtleties that can’t really be simply expressed otherwise in the rapid, tick-tack rhythm of oral expression.

While other languages have similar oral fill-words to heighten or clarify meaning (perhaps the too-widely-used four-letter words in English?), these forms are well worth knowing for learners of the language, as in almost all cases they signify something quite different in the dictionaries of the written language that the learner has been using.

see also:
=> German prefixes and suffixes - an overview
=> a table of:
– the distribution of German words by word class (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.);
– the average no. of meanings per word class.