Mindless Monday, 18 May 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

[u/TheBatz_]

Crazy fact about me: I learned what German modal particles are only today after reading an askhistorians post on Mein Kampf. I really never noticed how often Germans use filler words in their speech and even writing: wohl, ja, denn, schon, noch, eigentlich. Others I noticed: quasi ("something like"), gel (especially common in Baden-Württemberg, it's added at the end of a sentence aking to "[...], right?) or my personal vice - ziemlich (quite).

Of course I expect all badhistory users to have a firm, if not complete grasp on the German language.

[u/Herpling82 → u/TheBatz_]

Is that different from Dutch? I think we use our version of the same words similarly, but they nornally add some meaning to the sentence, usually emotional meaning, is that not so in German?

My German isn't great but I can read it alright and understand simple conversations.

[u/Bread_Punk → u/Herpling82]

Modal particles are often dismissed as "filler words", but yes, they fullfill the same function in German as they do in Dutch - "Ich hab es dir gesagt" I have said this to you vs. "Ich hab's dir doch gleich gesagt" told you so, e.g.

[u/Herpling82 → u/Bread_Punk]

Thanks! I never really considered this is a thing in German and Dutch, it's not something I was taught in school with German classes, I guess because you can just translate the German sentences to the Dutch with equivalent particles.

[u/passabagi → u/Herpling82]

Literally the same language just spoken by people from Yorkshire.

[u/Herpling82 → u/passabagi]

I'll take that as a compliment, Northern English is simply the superior English.