German colours a sentence with tiny unstressed words that carry attitude rather than meaning: doch (contradicting an expectation), ja (we both know this), mal (softening a request), eben/halt (resigned acceptance), wohl (probable guess). They live in the middle of the clause, after the verb and any pronouns, and they cannot be stressed or moved to the front.
Examples
- Das ist doch klar!
- But that's obvious! (as you should know)
- Komm mal her.
- Come here a sec.
- Das ist eben so.
- That's just how it is.
- Er wird wohl krank sein.
- He's probably ill.
The mistake to avoid
Trying to translate them one-for-one - drop the particle and the sentence stays grammatical but sounds blunt and foreign.
Where this fits in
Stil & Register, German C1: Idiomatische Wendungen, formelles und umgangssprachliches Register sowie Diskursmarker bewusst einsetzen, um Aussagen abzutönen, Beziehungen zwischen Gedanken herzustellen und stilistisch angemessen zu kommunizieren.