Now for a word that will give the opposite of joy: doch.
One of my favorite words from any language I've studied is doch. It purely means the opposite of whatever question is being asked. In German, it is often thought to be used as a very teenage word choice, but it also has something that English does not have: a clear, positive answer to a negative question. One example: “Did you not do your laundry today?” “Doch (Of course I did my laundry).” In normal English, if you answer, “Yes,” then the asker has no idea if the answer is, “Yes, I did the laundry ,” or “Yes, I didn't do the laundry.” So while this teenage word may seem not very important, it serves a necessary place in language.
No comments:
Post a Comment