Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day.
And today, we’ll do something many of you have been waiting for a long time – we’ll finally tackle ja.
And not because it means yes, but because it is one of those pesky particles.
You know, these little words like doch or eben or schon that Germans so virtuously sprinkle over their sentences like pixie dust. But when learners also try to sprinkle some, the pixie dust turns into… just dust. It’s NOT FAIR really! It’s native speaker privilege, is what it is.
Imagine a world without native speakers – we’d all stumble our way through our ramshackle sentences as equals. Without anxiety. Without shame. And without snob native speaker overlords telling us what does and doesn’t sound right!!
Speech would truly be free!
But native speakers do exist, and today we’ll take a look at what exactly Germans express with
ja
So, let’s jump right in.
I’m sure you all know that ja means yes. So in a bit more abstract world, we can say it basically expresses affirmation.
And that sense, the sense of affirming or reaffirming, is also at the core of the particle-ja.
But there’s definitely a little twist to it.
Take a look at these two sentences…
- Die Gyms sind grad zu, deshalb habe ich mir heute ein paar Gewichte gekauft.
- Die Gyms sind ja grad zu, deshalb habe ich mir heute ein paar Gewichte gekauft.
The plot of these two sentences, the surface layer information they present, is that I bought some weights because the gyms are closed.
And yet, they don’t have the same feeling to a native speaker and that’s because the pure facts are only one part of a sentence, much like the plot is just one aspect of a movie.
You can have two movies with the exact same plot, but they’re two totally different genres. That’s because there’s all kinds of “meta” information going on, and in language it’s the same.
Take this sentence:
“This soup smells interesting.”
It’s a very simple sentence but the meaning is totally unclear, actually, unless you have some meta data. This meta data could be the melody or some gestures or a facial expression. Or simply context.
Now, the German particles are essentially one way to add some “meta data” to a sentence, and if we want to translate them or use them idiomatically, we need to understand what that “meta data” is that they convey.
And for ja, the most common idea, that makes up I’d say 70% to 80% of the uses is a simple hashtag – #established reality
ja – A Hashtag for #established reality
Let’s look at our gym example again, and I’ll explain what I mean.
- Die Gyms sind [ja] grad zu, deshalb habe ich mir heute ein paar Gewichte gekauft.
The version without ja is a simple sentence relaying two pieces of information: the gyms are closed and I gained some weight…. er… I mean, I bought some weights, of course. I didn’t gain any. I’m actually incredibly ribbed.
But yeah, the sentence gives these two pieces of info and puts them into a cause and effect relationship. And technically, both pieces of info could be news that we want to share.
If we put the ja in, however, then we’re marking the first part with #established reality. So this essentially becomes a backdrop, a part of the scenery in front of which the other half takes place.
Just think of a movie that’s set in a super hot summer and in a random scene, you get a shot of the seething sun and then a cut to the actor and the unicorn sweating and panting. The sun shot re-establishes, re-affirms the heat, brings it right into the viewers awareness.
That’s kind of how ja works.
- Die Gyms sind ja grad zu, deshalb habe ich mir heute ein paar Gewichte gekauft.
- As you probably know the gyms are closed, so I bought a few weights today.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Wörter wie ja und doch sind schwer zu übersetzen – aber das wisst ihr ja.
- Words like ja and doch are hard to translate – but I don’t have to tell you that. (because you all know it.)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, I used as you know in these examples and that’s actually what many online sources give as a meaning for ja.
Which makes sense, because if you think about it, “as you know” kind of does the same thing – mark something as established reality.
However, I feel like the phrase as you know is overall a lot more “pushy” than ja. Like… it pretty much expects us to “know already“, and if we don’t, then we’d have to say “Uhm… actually I didn’t know that.”
Ja is WAY more subtle. It’s not as direct and sometimes it is really just a reflection of the speaker’s world, not of the one of the listener. So the speaker marks something as established reality from THEIR perspective, but there’s not always really an expectation for the other person to already know it.
That’s a clear difference to “as you know” and that’s why it’s better to not blindly think of as you know as a translation. Often, it won’t really work, or it won’t really do ja justice. And also, in some contexts it just plain doesn’t fit.
So let’s look at a few more examples and how ja is translated and try to get a “feel” this sense of #established-reality that ja expresses.
- Du weißt ja wie sie ist.
- I mean, you know how she is.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Ich glaub’ ich geh’ nach Hause.”
“Wie? Jetzt schon???”
“Es ist schon fast um 12 und ich…”
“Ach so ja, du musst ja morgen schon um 7 raus.” - “I think I’m gonna head home.” (the home-part is implied by context)
“What?? Already???”
“Well, it’s almost midnight and I got…”
“Oh yeah, right, you have to get up at 7 tomorrow, (I forgot).” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Man sagt immer, Kinder könnten so übergut Sprachen lernen. Aber die haben ja auch die perfekten Bedingungen.
- People always say that kids are oh uber great at language learning. But we must not forget/you need to factor in the fact that the kids have the perfect conditions.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich weiß ja nicht ob das so eine gute Idee ist.
- Hmm, I REALLY don’t know if that’s such a great idea.
The last one is a great example for when the ja basically just refers to the speakers reality. Like… a friend suggests that you go to the magical forest to knock over unicorns in their sleep (they sleep standing). You say it’s dangerous, but your friend gives you arguments that it’s safe because unicorns need like half an hour to boot up after getting woke. But your skepticism remains and you’d say the sentence above… you already said that it’s not a good idea, and the ja marks that and at the same time reaffirms it, but there is not even a whiff of “Told you already” in it. It’s more like talking to oneself, in that case.
Anyway, more examples :)
- “Ich hab’ Probleme mit Maria.”
“Aber die ist doch voll verliebt in dich?!”
“Das ist ja das Problem.” - “I have problems with Maria.”
“But she’s madly in love with you, isn’t she.”
“Well that IS the problem.”
(that is the reality I have been trying to express all along)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Ich komm ein bisschen zu spät.”
“War ja klar.” - “I’ll be a bit late.”
“Well, that’s nothing new.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Maria fand meinen Witz über ihren Po überhaupt nicht lustig.”
“Hab ich dir ja gesagt.” - “Maria didn’t find my joke about her butt funny at all.”
“Well, I told you so.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Cool.
Now, after reading the last example, those of you who have read my article on doch might be wondering if we could use doch in that example and what the difference might be.
That’s actually an interesting question because at their core, both words are about affirmation.
However, ja basically just reaffirms something and kind of expects everyone to be on board with it. Doch on the other hands “seeks”to get affirmation from the other person.
- Hab’ ich dir ja gesagt.
- Hab ich dir doch gesagt.
These sentence both basically tell the other person something like “You should have listened to me.” or “Look how smart I am, I knew it.”
But the one with ja just states it as a fact the speaker is satisfied with and the conversation can end or change topic after that. The doch on the other hand states the fact but it tries to engage the other person, make them agree.
- Told you so! *drops mic, walks to the fridge
- See, I told you so, didn’t I?
I hope you can see that the two words create a fairly different feel, and they’re definitely not interchangeable. Like…we could say that both are #fact and ja is #established-reality while doch is something like #like-if-you-agree.
All right.
Now, I hope you got at least some idea of what native speakers use ja for. Keep in mind, this is not a conscious choice. It’s more half-conscious, and most native speakers are not even remotely aware of what they are using it for. So don’t get too hung up in your head when analyzing sentences. Try not to force your brain to understand ja. Instead, tell your brain do brain things and tell your gut to pay attention to it.
Anyway, there are a couple of uses that don’t 100% fit in with what we had so far, so let’s take a look at those.
Some more uses of “ja”
So besides this whole #established-reality stuff, ja is also in “reaction statements” to express some form of surprise or engagement. Like… you learn a piece of news, either by reading seeing or hearing and you have a reaction.
- Oh wow, der ist ja klein.
- Oh wow, THIS is a small one.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Du bist ja groß geworden.
- Wow, you have GROWN.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Maria hat das Date abgesagt.”
“Echt?! Oh, das ist ja schade.” - “Maria cancelled the date?”
“Oh really? That’s so sad.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Using ja this way makes a lot of sense, if we think about it as a means to re-affirm your statement.
However, the word aber can be used in many of these examples as well, so people don’t really do it for the meaning.
A large part of it is just rhythm and melody.
All the examples have a very specific melody – the quality, the adjective (klein, groß, schade) gets an emphasis. And before it, there is this unstressed particle.
- DUN DUN det DUNNN.
It’s REALLY important to get the flow right, but it doesn’t matter whether there’s ja or aber. And no, there is no deeper logic to why those two and not another one. It just happened to become idiomatic, just like in English you’d use now.
- Now THAT’s a small one if I’ve ever seen one.
The now doesn’t mean now here, it’s just part of this fixed “scaffolding” to express surprise.
Anyway, so this surprised-ja is pretty common in daily life and it’s definitely something that can make you sound a lot more native if you use it correctly, so try to imitate the melody with my new recording feature :).
Now, there’s one more use of ja, that deserves a mention even though it’s nowhere near as common as the other two.
And that’s ja as a way to “threaten up” commands and order.
- Mach das ja ordentlich!
- You had better do that PROPERLY!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Sei jaaa pünktlich!
- You better be on time!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
At the heart of this, we once again find the affirming-core of ja – you basically affirm your command.
But ja sounds pretty damn demanding, and there’s an unspoken “or else” in there. It’s pretty pretty strong though, and you should probably NOT use it.
And speaking of not using… another thing you absolutely shouldn’t do, is try and use ja in questions. Like… yes, there are plenty of contexts where the idea of #established-reality would fit into a question, or where you use a question to express surprise.
But ja simply won’t work. It sounds really really confusing. And ultimately, that kind of makes sense, because at the core of it, ja is about affirmation, it ANSWERS questions. So yeah.. do NOT add it to questions, it will not work.
All right.
So that was our overview over the things ja expresses, and if you pay close attention in daily life, I’m sure you’ll recognize a lot of what I laid out today. And in time, you’ll get a feel for it and eventually you’ll use it like an absolute savage and native speakers are gonna be like
“Wow, du sprichst ja gut.”
And that’s actually it for today :).
I actually don’t have a quiz for you this time beacuse I couldn’t really think of more than one question, so instead, if you want to recap, my suggestion is that you paraphrase what you’ve learned in the comments. Or you can just do a little dialogue with ja in it and I’ll correct it.
And of course, if you have any questions or you found another use of ja that you’re unsure about, let’s clear that up in the comments as well.
I hope you liked it, have a great week and see you next time.
further reading:
wpDiscuz
