Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. And today it is time for a word that rhymes with doch and that’s almost as confusing: Noch.
Noch the nightmare. Noch the spook. I know it sounds crazy but – the word has been taunting me. Really. Like, sometimes, I’m in the shower and I would think about it and the suddenly I would hear its voice.
“You want to understand me? Explain me even? YOU? Hahahahah…pathetic. You don’t even speak German that well.”
But I’ve had about enough of this. It’s time to take the bull by the horns. his.
Today it’s on.
Today we’ll look at
The meaning of “noch”
I’ll just do 10 motivational push-ups real quick.
1
2.
Perfect. Now I’m set.
Oh and in case you’re wondering. What I did was nerd push ups, they’re counted in binary.
Anyway, the explanation will be better than this joke, so let’s just jump right in.
***
One problem with noch is that it is hard to grasp what noch is actually talking about.
What I mean is that for a word like bald, for example, we can say that it talks about time. And a word like twice talks about an amount.
For noch, it is not that easy to say what it is talking about.
But it hasn’t always been that obscure and there’s an interesting parallel to English.
The origins of “noch”
And here comes our first surprise already, because historically, noch is basically now, just with an ending *ke. That’s how it used to look, so it was like “nowke” or something. And that ending meant: and.
Wait, an ending that means and?
Yes, it sounds strange but Latin for instance made wide use of it. I can’t speak Latin but I’m very good at copy-pasting Latin from elsewhere so here you go.
- Senatus Populusque Romanus
- The senat AND the Roman people.
In the Germanic languages, this ending has pretty much disappeared but there are still leftovers of it.
Like noch. Or that other confusing German word that rhymes with noch ;).
Yeah… doch also comes from that ending.
But anyway, so noch is essentially now with idea of too or also attached to it.
Now, let’s talk about now for a second. Bear with me please, I’m going somewhere with this.
The German translation for now is jetzt.
- Ich gehe jetzt schlafen.
- I’m going to bed now.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And jetzt is related to the English word yet.
What does that matter? Well, you see, back in the olden days there basically existed two ways to indicate the current point in time:
The now-way (nun, noch) and the yet-way (jetzt)
Take a look at these two sentences.
- I have yet to do this.
- It isn’t finished yet.
1000 years ago those two examples just meant:
- I have to do this now.
- It isn’t finished now.
But over the years, yet shifted away from being just about the point in time and instead started to take on some implications.
- It isn’t finished yet.
This isn’t just a statement about now anymore.
It implies that there is still work going on and it will be finished at some point. This notion of “anticipated change” is at the core of yet today. And for the normal time business, English uses now.
- now – normal time indication
- yet – focus on “anticipated change”
And what does that have to do with German?
Well… in German it basically evolved the other way around. So jetzt is the normal time word and noch comes with implications.
- “Bist du jetzt fertig?”
“Noch nicht.” - “Are you ready now?”
“Not yet.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
At this moment, noch started laughing in my mind.
“Hah.. so you’re saying that I mean “yet”?! That is even stupider than I thought. You’re laughab…”
Quiet, noch.
I just explained all that to show people where you’re coming from and that there is actually a sort of parallel in English.
I know that you are very often not a translation for yet and yet is rarely a translation for you.
And I also know the reason for that.
“Oh and what would that be?”
Well, that’s simple. You are not simply now.
You are and now, or now too, so you do refer to how it has been before… and that idea is lacking in yet.
Why “noch” means Yet,Still and Left
Let’s take a very simple example…
- Es regnet noch.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Based on the original noch, this literally means
- It is raining now as well.
Noch tells us that it is raining now and it was raining earlier and that is exactly what still does.
- It is still raining.
Yet wouldn’t make much sense here because it lacks the whole “it was like that earlier too”-idea. But wait… what about this
- I haven’t done it yet.
Isn’t this talking about the past too? Well, yes and no. The sentence does tell us that it wasn’t done in the past either. But yet has nothing to do with that.
- I haven’t done it.
This tells us exactly the same about the past. Yet just adds the implication that I’ll probably do it. The rain example is different.
- It is raining.
This sentence tells us nothing about the past. Was it raining earlier? I don’t know. And yet cannot add that. Noch and still can. But noch isn’t a pure still either.
You see, still is about a lack of change. Just think of “Stand still”. The word kind of freezes things in time.It can imply change, too… but only if used in the past.
- Ich war noch ein Kind.
- I was still a child.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Here, we are told that I am not a child anymore… but still used in present tense is just… well… still.
- Ich bin noch ein Kind.
- I’m still a child.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The noch in that example is more ambiguous than still in that it can also imply a coming change. Kind of like it’s brother now.
- You say that NOW.
This can mean that earlier you didn’t or that later you won’t. So it can make implications both ways and context tells us what it is. Noch is just like that.Sometimes more about that something still is the way it is and sometimes more about that it hasn’t changed just yet but it will soon.
- Ich habe es noch nicht gemacht.
- I still haven’t done it.
I haven’t done it yet. - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Here, the German sentence is actually closer to the yet-version. Still puts much more emphasis on the time that has already passed. And as soon as it is given a little extra boost, noch can’t cut it anymore…
- I STILL haven’t done it.
Noch alone is simply not “still” enough for that. It is too weak and there is too much change implied. So in those cases you would say immer noch in German.
- Ich habe es IMMER NOCH nicht gemacht.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So noch is kind of a mix of yet, still and now. Like still it has the idea of ongoing in it and just like yet or an emphasized now it can imply coming change.
Often it is a mix of the two and which one is more interesting, the still-part or the change-part depends on context.
- Thomas schläft noch.
- Thomas is still sleeping.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich hab’ nur noch 10 Euro.
- I have only 13 Dollars left.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
“You’re so boring.”
What? Oh, noch is talking in my mind again.
“I said, you’re boring. You’re explanation is boring. It puts me to sleep and probably everyone else too.”
Whatever noch. I am not listening to you anymore. You’re just a word, you can’t even really talk.
“Oh but I c…”
Shut up!
Where was I. Oh yeah… the still-part and the change-part and when they are used. So .. we had context but what’s probably more important to mention is… emphasis. A strong emphasis shifts the noch towards change and away from the still-idea.
- “Kannst du das Piano noch halten?”
“Geht noch./Noch geht’s”
- “Can you keep holding the piano?”
“It’s okay.”
“Well, for now yes (but not very long).”(emphasis comes mainly from having it in position 1)
Or let’s take a sentence with a negative….
- Die Existenz von Einhörnern wurde noch nicht widerlegt.
- The existence of unicorns hasn’t been disproved yet.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- NOCH wurde die Existenz von Einhörnern nicht widerlegt.
- The existence of unicorns hasn’t been disproved… YET.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
In negative sentences, the noch is more about coming change anyway but we can see that the strongly emphasized noch implies change much more strongly.
Besides emphasis, also the type of sentence plays a role. In questions, the still-part is much stronger…
- Regnet es noch?
- Is it still raining?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Okay… it wasn’t all that obvious maybe… but noch cannot be the question yet.
- Is it raining yet?
Why not? Because remember… noch has the now as well idea in it and that has no place in a question like that
- Is it raining now as well?
There is no way this could mean yet. It is straight up still in this case.
- Is it still raining?
And how about an order or request.
- Bleib bitte noch hier!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This noch is also more about the now as well but future or potential change is kind of implied. I mean, why else would you say that if the person weren’t about to leave.
- Please, stay (further/longer)!
Now, all that sound probably kind of confusing but I don’t think there is much merit in making a list of translations like “noch means ___ when…”
It can mean still, it can mean yet, sometimes it means longer sometimes it isn’t translated at all… think you should try to remember the essence of it rather than the translation.
“Yeah, that is good advice… remember my essence. You have no idea what my essenc…”
Quiet noch. I do have an idea. You are a form of now,so you can imply coming change, but you also have the idea of also, too and this is where the still-part comes from.
“Pfff… whatever.. that wasn’t even half of what ….”
Shut UP! Wir sind noch nicht fertig. We’ll deal with the other half now.
“Ohhh.. I’m so scared.”
You should be.
“Noch” as “another, again, else”
There is another, a second idea to noch : the idea of addition.
“*GASP! Who told you that?”
Ha, you didn’t expect that, noch, did you?!?!
“Oh… no!”
Serves you right! That’s how it feels to be exposed.
So… where was I … uh yeah.. so noch has the idea of additional in it and the most prominent example is this
- Ich möchte noch ein Bier.
- I would like another beer.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
If you’re asking for another item of something in a sense of one more… Now, how did that happen? I mean… how did noch take on that meaning? But actually it is not really that much of a stretch. We’ve learned that noch used to be a time word, meaning now as well…. now imagine you’re in a bar
- “I’m gonna get a new round. What do you guys want.”
“Now also a beer.”
All the elements are there. You’re implying that you’ve had a beer before and that you’ll have one now. It might sound odd at first but it is THE way to say another in sense of one more. NOT ein anderes. Ein anderes means a different item. What you need to say is noch eine/n/r…
- Noch eine Stunde, dann ist mein Geburtstag. (countable)
- Another/One more hour and it’s my birthday.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Nur noch eine Klausur und dann bin ich für dieses Semester fertig.
- Only one more exam and then I’ll be done for the semester.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Sag das noch (ein)mal.
- Say that another time (lit.)
- Say that again.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And this is really only the tip of the ice berg. This idea of addition or more is used in all kinds of contexts…
- Willst du noch Suppe? (uncountable)
- Would you like some more soup?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Ich hätte gern 3 Brötchen und ein Stück Mohnkuchen.”
“Darf es noch (et)was sein?” (super common bakery question) - “I’d like 3 buns and a piece of poppy seed cake.”
“Will the be anything else?“ - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Was noch?
- What else?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich muss das Projekt bis heute Abend fertig machen und jetzt sagt mir mein Chef ich soll auch noch eine Präsentation halten.
- So…I have to finish the project by tonight, and now my boss tells me, that in addition to that I ALSO have to give a presentation…
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
In the last example the noch does little more but to underline that it is a lot of additional work. The auch (also) alone would sound much more neutral or indifferent. So.. obviously it is much more broad than another… but the idea is always “addition”. And that’s really just the tip of the ice berg. What? I already said that? Well… it’s the second tip then… it’s a female ice berg. Adrift in the crystal clear waters of the polar sea, a pale beauty with a cold heart … and two very very tight nipples. But seriously, another very very important use of the additional idea are comparisons.
“noch” as “even”
And there, noch is used as an intensifier.
- “Maria ist echt groß”
“So wie ich?”
“Nein, noch größer.” - “Maria is really tall.”
“As tall as I am?”
“Even taller.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
I am already tall, taller than many but the noch adds even more to that. And if that still isn’t enough… well, we can add an emphasis to noch.
- “Das neue Handy ist noch besser als das alte.”
“NOCH besser? Unmöglich.”‘
“Doch doch, noch besser.” - “Then new phone is even better than the old one.”
“Better than THAT? Impossible.”
“But it is, even better than that.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Oh and by the way… this also works for another.
- “Ich nehm’ noch einen Whiskey.”
“NOCH einen? Hast du nicht langsam genug?” - “I’ll have another Whiskey.”
“ANOTHER one? Don’t you think you’ve had enough?” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And that’s still not all you can do with this additional-idea. There is one use that many find especially confusing.
- “Kommst du? Wir müssen los.”
“Ja, komme gleich. Ich muss nur noch kurz auf Klo.” - “You coming? We need get going.”
“Yeah, I’ll be right there. I just have to go to the toilet real quick.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This noch is really hard to translate. It is kind of just acknowledging that the next big item on your fictional to do list is “leaving”and you squeeze “toilet” in between. But it is not always about squeezing. Think of it as a very very soft “in addition” … a hint of in addition if you will.
- Ich muss nochmal nach Hause, aber dann komm’ ich.
- I have to go home first but then I’ll come.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- DVD gucken? Hmmm… ich müsste eigentlich noch eine Mail schreiben aber ich habe keine Lust.
- DVD gucken? Hmmm…. I’d actually have to write an e-mail but I don’t feel like it.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Willst du noch kurz reinkommen?
- Do you want to come in for a minute?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The last sentence could be said by a guy or a woman after one of the first dates… the noch just adds the idea that they’ve already done stuff together. It connects the question to the date. But I wouldn’t know how to translate it … also, in addition… they’re just way too strong.
So… just take it as a coloring word maybe.
Now, sometimes noch can be both… a real addition or this coloring,”hinted” one.
- Ich habe noch die Küche geputzt.
- I also cleaned the kitchen (after cleaning the bathroom).
- I cleaned the kitchen (and then I left)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So… this was the addition-idea of noch and as we’ve seen, it is used for quite a variety of things. No wonder the word is so common.
“Uhm…. “
What now noch?
“Can I ask a question?”
Go ahead.
“Well… I realized that I’ve been quite a pain in the ass today and I’m really really sorry.
You did a good job explaining me. I would be honored if I could do the recap for you. I know how much you hate it.”
Well, I guess why not… knock yourself out.
“So… I, the word noch, have two meanings. One is between yet and still and the other is “additional” and they have absolutely nothing to do with each other so the best would be to think of me as two words tha…”
Hold on a second… I just realized something…. you little trickster, you almost had me fooled.
“What? What’d I do? I’m innocent.”
Oh you know what I’m talking about… nothing to do with each other? You’re trying to keep up a complicated facade. They have EVERYTHING to do with each other.
“noch” – the one simple core
Your core-idea is additional and that’s it. That’s part of pretty much everything you do. Maybe a large addition, maybe a little one… but always an addition of sorts
- Ich schlafe noch.
- I’m still sleeping.
- “I’m doing additional sleeping”
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
It covers the still-part as well as the “upcoming change”-part
- Noch kann ich das Klavier halten.
- I can hold the piano a little longer.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
It is kind of the same. Even if on the surface the uses seem contradictory… like in this dialogue… Here’s the setting. There is soup on the table, your plate is almost empty and your friend has the scoop….
- “Willst du noch?”
“Ne, ich hab’ noch.” - “Do you want some more?”
“No, I still have some.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Looks confusing but it really only is additional, seen from different perspectives.
- “Do you want additional?”
“No I have additional on my plate.”
Sometimes several interpretations are possible.
- Das Wasser ist noch wärmer.
- The water is still warmer.
- The water is even warmer.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Here, if I want people to hear the temporal-noch I would use a really specific pronunciation … like… a pause after ist… then a noch with a strongly climbing pitch followed by another pause…. but that is nothing to learn from a text.
Anyway.. I’ll admit… this whole additional thing is maybe a little abstract.Just find your own way to remember it. The only thing you shouldn’t do is thinking in translations too much. You need to get a feel for it and then it’ll become natural and you’ll just know that it is yet in a certain case and not in another one.
Now, we’re almost done for today but there are noch a few uses of noch that shouldn’t be missing here.
noch – some other uses and idioms
Let’s start with something that many people are asking about. Stuff like
- Schönen Tag/Abend noch.
- Viel Spaß noch.
These things are common good bye phrases and the noch basically adds the idea that the day or evening or event has already started. It is kind of similar to this example
- “Ich komme erst später.”
“Kein Problem, ich bin noch eine Weile da.” - “I’ll come but only later.”
“No problem, I’ll be here a while longer. - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The noch adds the info that I have already been there. So I wouldn’t say that sentence if I had just arrived. And just like that you wouldn’t say “Schönen Tag noch” to your darling in the morning.
Then, there is the very nice noch und nöcher which pretends noch were a normal adjective. And … you know…. normal adjectives get umlaut :). And what does it mean? Well, it plays with the idea of addition and means something like in abundance.
- Löcher noch und nöcher – Deutsche Strassen kaputt wie nie.
- Holes everywhere – German roads bad like never before.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
An important construction is weder … noch… which means neither … nor… but we’ve already talked about that and the noch there actually has a different origin than the one of today.. so I’ll just give you one example
- Ich habe weder Lust noch Zeit für Oper.
- I have neither the desire nor the time for opera.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Lastly, there is the combination noch so...
- Du kannst ihr noch so viele Komplimente machen… sie steht einfach nicht auf dich.
- You can make her compliments all you want… she is just not into you.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This is kind of rare but I thought I’d mention it anyway.
And that’s it.
That was our German word of the Day noch. It is the brother of now and used to mean now as well. But the temporal idea has faded and today I’d say the core is the idea of addition… be it a large addition, or a very short one.
Noch plays with this idea and offers different takes on it, sometimes really twisted ones :). Which exactly it is depends a lot on context but also the emphasis makes a huge difference. A strongly emphasized noch can either strongly imply an upcoming change or it can sort of express that the addition made is… kind of a lot.
It is definitely tricky to grasp.
Like, if you try to closely follow the flight path of a butterfly you’ll be confused. But if you let go of precision and just gaze at it you’ll see that it is circling around a certain flower… wait, do butterflies do that, actually?
Anyway, if you have any questions or suggestions or if I have forgotten an important noch-use just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
Oh… as a little extra here’s a list with the most common combinations.
- noch nie – never (so far, option of still doing it is implied)
- immer noch – a very still still
- noch nicht – not yet
- noch mal – once again
- noch eine/s/r/n/m – another (as in one more)
- nur noch – only left
- noch (et)was – something else
- was noch – what else
The word “intensifier” was the key to my finally understanding noch when there is no direct translation, like your examples noch besser, noch großer! Vielen Dank!!
Happy it clicked :)
I have to know something, so please tell me it was intentional. In an article about noch, you wrote, “(noch talking) You did a good job explaining me. I would be honored if I could do the recap for you. I know how much you hate it.” And you reply,
“Well, I guess why not… knock yourself out.” That defines superb subtlety, sir!
Thanks for this article. For any Hindi readers here noch translates to ‘abhi bhi’ and works supremely well with that translation
This and your post on ‘Doch’ were the best German lessons I’ve had in a long time! Great clarification. You’re the best!
Danke :)!!
I’ve read through your article twice and I’m still (noch) having trouble applying it to sentences like this:
– Ich rufe ihn noch heute Nachmittag zurück
In Pimsleur German 3, you are prompted with
– I’ll call him back still this afternoon
and you are supposed to come up with the above German sentence. It’s true that this sentence does get me to say the German, but I feel it is cheating because it’s not a natural English sentence. If anybody said this to me I would say, what do you mean by “still this afternoon”?
This is not an uncommon occurrence in Pimsleur, and I while appreciate anything that will help me get used to speaking German it (still) leaves me in a state of confusion. If I don’t know what the English means how am I supposed to get a feel for what the German means?
And as I said at the beginning, it doesn’t seem to fit with any of the translations you provided. At least I can’t figure it out.
Yet…
I fully agree, it doesn’t fit in “naturally”. We have to be a bit “creative” (aka force it)
You can think of it as something that is “added” to the todo-list of the day (or whatever time period it is.
– Bevor ich zur Party gehe, dusche ich noch.
– Ich dusche noch diese Woche, versprochen.
You’re adding the action to whatever else you’re doing. And this sense then shifted a bit and can now in some contexts sound like you’re “expediting” something. Like… think of someone saying “I’m squeezing this call in for sure!!”
That’s not the vibe, but that’s the “logic”.
Let me know if that helps.
Your examples are right on the mark. Based on them I propose noch be translated by “in my plans” — That is:
Ich rufe ihn noch heute Nachmittag zurück
In my plans I’m calling him back this afternoon
Bevor ich zur Party gehe, dusche ich noch
In my plans before I go to the party, I’m showering
Ich dusche noch diese Woche, versprochen
In my plans I’m showering this week, I promise
If this is correct (and I’m not sure it is), it seems moving “in my plans” to the beginning makes the English sound more natural
Although your articles are great, I like to summarize complicated things into small notes for quick reference. So here’s my attempt at a noch note:
noch can convey ongoing, planned or changing actions
When actions are ongoing, it can be translated by “still”
When actions are planned, it can be translated by “in my plans”
When actions are changing, it can be translated by “yet” or an emphasized “now”
Considering it more, “I plan to” is more natural than “in my plans”. So, what about this?
Ich rufe ihn noch heute Nachmittag zurück
I plan to call him back this afternoon
Bevor ich zur Party gehe, dusche ich noch
Before I go to the party, I plan to shower
Ich dusche noch diese Woche, versprochen
I plan to shower this week, I promise
Hmmm, to me “I plan” sounds way less definite than “Ich mache noch X”. It sounds wishy washy and I would be like “Yeah, let’s see.” whereas the versions with “noch” do sound like something I’d tend to rely on.
OK then how about “as well” for a translation of noch in these cases? Fits in with the notion of addition.
Ich rufe ihn noch heute Nachmittag zurück
I’ll call him back as well this afternoon
Bevor ich zur Party gehe, dusche ich noch
Before I go to the party, I’ll shower as well
Ich dusche noch diese Woche, versprochen
I’ll shower as well this week, I promise
No, better not. The notion of “addition” is TOO STRONG for “as well” (the way I feel it anyway). I don’t think you can pin it down to one translation, and it’s definitely a candidate to skip
Hallo, darf ich fragen: was ist die Bedeutung von noch im folgenden Satz?
Kann ich dir noch spontan Bescheid sagen?
Ich habe diese Nachricht von einer Freundinnen bekommen. Ich verstehe die allgemeine Bedeutung des Satzes – “can I let you know spontaneously/closer to the time?”- aber es ist mir nicht klar, wie genau noch in diesem Satz funktioniert.
Vielen Dank für alle Ihre Grammatikhilfe! Sie haben schon oft mein Leben gerettet haha XD
Das ist schwer in einer Übersetzung zu erfassen.
Ich schreibe das mal auf Englisch, damit auch Leute das lesen können, die noch nicht so gut sind.
The “noch” here, the way I understand it without further context, kind of acknowledges that there is kind of a deadline that the person is asking to bend.
Imagine someone sending out dinner invitations for Friday in a group chat on Thursday, telling people to reply until the evening.
Someone who isn’t sure yet, whether they’ll be able to make it, might ask if they can also give feedback in Friday still.
Maybe imagine a “or is that too late” added to the question.
To me, this “noch” ties in with a “noch” where something is squeezed in before something else.
– Ich muss vor der Party noch kurz nach Hause.
Let me know if that helps :)
Hey, that’s great, thank you!
“Ab sofort bin ich nur noch nett zu allen…”
I am wondering what “noch” is doing in there. If “noch” were to be cut out of the phrase it would still mean “From now on, I will only be nice to everyone”. It’s impossible for me to spot the difference that “noch” makes. Could you maybe explain it, please? Thank you.
Great question!!
The “noch” explains that you’re “limiting the options” from what was “more” before.
I think it’s best to think of this as a fixed phrase because the sentence with only “nur” is not wrong, but people don’t really say it that way, unless they want to make it sound like some experiment. Like “What would happen if I am ONLY nice to people.”
Using “nur noch” has more of a focus on the change from before to now and how there’s less variety.
It’s really hard to capture in translation though.
To give you a different example:
– Heute trinke ich nur Bier.
– Today, I’ll only drink beer.
– Heute trinke ich nur noch Bier.
– Today, I won’t drink anything else other than beer anymore. (had drinks before, other stuff than just beer, but now it gets limited).
To be honest, your first explanation didn’t make much light in my head, but when you gave the Bier example, then yes, I can see the light. Thank you so much for taking the time!
So what she is saying actually, is that she used to be nice to people before too, although not all the time – she was also mean sometimes, or sarcastic, or other things. From now on, it gets limited. She will retain being nice, but stop the other behaviours.
I guess you could say, I will only still drink beer, or I will only still be nice. I’m also not a native speaker of English, but I guess it should work?
Yes, or maybe she was never nice, but all kind of other things and from now on that changes to only nice.
What’s your native language, by the way?
What?!:)) Now I’m confused again!
My native language is Romanian. I don’t think it has modal particles… I feel like I never evolved the neural circuits necessary to process modal particles. Because that’s what it is, isn’t? One of those words for which “you have just to accept that there is no word to word translation and you can only try to sense the meaning from the context whenever it’s used”, or which “adds the flavor of “on top of other (bad) things”. I found these helpful insights on a Quora thread – you might like to know that in that same thread there was also a link to this page.
No, it’s not really a modal particle and I’d recommend not getting hung up too much on that term.
There are two tests for whether or not something is a modal particle.
1) Does the basic meaning change when we take it out?
2) Can we move it around?
The answer to both is yes, and for modal particles it’s no.
The meaning changes when you take out “noch” and you can move “nur noch nett” around in the sentence, which indicates that it is one unit with “nur noch” being modifiers for “nett sein”
A real modal particle like “halt” or “doch” can NOT be moved around. It always sits between Theme and Rheme.
I will add one more reply here – and that’s the one!
I found this phrase in another one of your essays:
“Ich arbeite dort deshalb nur noch selten allein.” – This was to illustrate how TeKaMoLo doesn’t work, not the unexpected translations of “noch” (I mean unexpected for someone who is trying to learn German), which you translated as “now” – of all things!
I found this interesting, because it has a very different meaning than in “nur noch nett” although at first sight it looks as if it’s the same thing, the same words are there, the same arrangement of letters… although, as it turns out, it’s just a coincidence!
Actually, to me it’s indeed very similar to “nur noch nett”. It means that before, there was a period when you’d work alone more often but now it’s only rare. You “restricted” the “manner” of working from “sometimes alone, sometimes with others” to “almost always alone”.
Does that make sense?
hello! please, can you share the references that you used? :) its for some university stuff, i reallyy need it!
I think I used DWDS.de and etymonline.com for the etymology and that’s about it :). The rest is my own analysis.
Hi,
Just wanted to say thanks for the explanaition. The shower scene was so relatable for how I feel around noch, haha.
this is what i have always been looking for thank you bro
My pleasure :)
Great explanation! Noch is defeated:)
It was really funny!
Happy to hear that :)!
Dieser Artikel ist der erste von dir, den ich gelesen hatte und er hat mich sofort zu einem großen Fan gemacht.
Du machst Deutschlernen spaß und gleichzeitig sehr informativ. Vielen dank für diese fantastische Webseite!
Danke für das schöne Feedback :)!
Sehr gerne!
Ich lerne seit zwei Jahre Deutsch. Ich hab’ deine Webseite gefunden, als Ich frustriert mit Rosetta Stone geworden war. Ich war ganz verwirrt davon, “noch” zu benutzen und ich habe bei Google nach der Bedeutung gesucht. Ich fand deine Webseite und kurz danach, hab’ ich Rosetta Stone nicht mehr verwendet. :)
I agree. It is an excellent website. Fun and lots of detail
Hallo, I just wanted to say that I’m learning German and sometimes for me it gets so complicated but with your explanation about “noch” learn and follow the reading was so funny and well explained, thank you a lot. I appreciate your hard work, Dankeschön!!
Happy to hear that :)!!
Danke und liebe Grüße… und viel Spaß noch :)!
The addition sense of noch comes most easy to me because in my first language (Hindi) the word for and is also used the same way. Like more.
But the ones where one doesn’t translate it is the most difficult for me.
“In alten, alten Zeiten, als die Menschen noch in ganz anderen Sprachen redeten”
This is the first line of the book Momo, and like I predicted, the English version doesn’t translate it. Could you help me out with the sense here?
To me, this is a classic “still” and I’m surprised it is not in the translation.
– Als ich noch ein Kind war…
– When I was still a kid…
Must be some finer vibe of “still” that the translator felt like doesn’t really fit, but on the surface, this “noch” means “still”.
I did get the vibe of still here, but I’d think i would write the direct old ancestor of today’s language when using still. Not ganz andere Sprache.
“in old times when people were still speaking Biblical Hebrew”. But then again, i should stop comparing.
Would it be uncommon or sound less idiomatic to leave out “noch” here?
– Als ich
nochein Kind warIn English, it’s not wrong to say “when I was still a kid.” But “when I was a kid” is a lot more common.
I thought it might be the other way around in German, but looking at Google now, I’m not too sure (568K results without “noch”, 107K with).
Both versions work fine for me, but the “noch” underlines or introduces a contrast between “a child” and “not a child anymore”.
Without “noch” it can just be a super basic establishing of a point/period in time in the past.
Actually, I was now trying to come up with a context where I would use “noch” and I couldn’t really think of anything that wouldn’t also work without it. So maybe it’s like in English after all, but it sounds completely idiomatic with “noch”, so it’s not like “Why is the noch there, what’s the reason”. People would just ignore it, kind of, if there’s no actual contrast in the message.
Hope that helps :)
Yeah, that helps, thanks :)
Hi –
Ich weiß, dass Sie “nur noch” im Sinne von “übrig” beschrieben haben. Also in Ihrem Satz:
Ich arbeite dort deshalb nur noch selten allein.
Wird es so verwendet, dass ich früher mehr gearbeitet habe, aber jetzt arbeite ich weniger… so wie das, was “bleibt”, anders ist als vorher?
Vielen Dank
“nur noch selten allein” heißt, dass ich früher oft oder regelmäßig allein gearbeitet habe, aber jetzt nicht mehr. Genau!
Really appreciate you taking the time to flesh all this out but my God is your conversational diction impossible to follow grammatically
Happy to purge the worst instances, just point me to them :)
(Irgendwie habe ich mich nicht getraut, diesen Kommentar zu posten, habe ein paar Tage lang gezögert, aber ich schicke ihn jetzt einfach mal ab, bevor ich es mir anders überlege)
Immer wenn ich Fragen zu “noch” habe, komme ich zu diesem Artikel zurück und lese ihn nochmal durch. Es ist für mich ein bisschen so, wie wenn man einen Lieblingssong hat, den man sich immer wieder gerne anhört und jedes mal was neues raushört. Besonders bei den längeren Artikeln (und natürlich auch im Wörterbuch) gibt es ganz viele interessante Infos und Tipps, die woanders nur schwer oder gar nicht zu finden sind.
Und noch eine kurze Frage, ich habe in einer Doku folgende Sätze gehört und bin mir nicht sicher, ob “jetzt” als Modalpartikel verwendet wird:
Die Bedeutung scheint sich nicht zu ändern, wenn man “jetzt” einfach weglässt. Was drückt es hier aus? Ich habe ein bisschen recherchiert aber leider nicht viel dazu gefunden.
Danke für das tolle Feedback :)!! Es freut mich wirklich, dass so ein langer Artikel wie der hier dir nicht langweilig wird.
Zu deiner Frage… du hast recht, dass sich nicht viel ändert, wenn man das “jetzt” weglässt. But it does still carry the general theme of “current-ness”, only that it’s maybe a bit more like “in these circumstances”.
There can sometimes be a subtext of “I mean, duh…” or “come on” but that’s really up to context.
Hilft dir das?
Ja, danke!
Ich hatte noch nie darüber nachgedacht, aber ich glaube, man kann “now” auch so benutzen. Oder so ähnlich, um einen Zeitpunkt zu beschreiben, oder um zu zeigen, dass sich die Situation geändert hat. Zum Beispiel:
I’m heading home now.
He got credit for good behavior, so he will now be released in 6 months.
Wobei es ziemlich viele andere Beispiele gibt, wo der Unterschied nicht so deutlich ist.
Or if your friend has been playing annoying music too long, you could say:
Come on (now), turn it off!
Could you turn it off now?
Oder im Sinne von “I mean”:
I mean, you don’t really believe that, right?
You don’t believe that now, do you?
Kommt vielleicht ein bisschen darauf an, wie man es sagt, aber da gibt es prinzipiell keinen großen Unterschied. At least the feeling I get is similar when I say the last two pairs of sentences. Ist irgendwie schwer zu erklären.
(Sorry, ich wollte mich kurzfassen, habe aber dann doch einen kleinen Roman geschrieben)
Hi Emanuel,
I stumbled upon your blog when I wanted to understand meaning of Schönen Tag noch. (I am a beginner and my first language is Hindi,though it will take few days or few weeks to reach that level, when I will be able to comprehend or use the information you shared here) but I really liked the way you put it forward.
I will keep revisiting the website, searched you over Youtube also, and found both the videos funnny :D
Kudos !!
Thanks a lot for the nice feedback :). This article is definitely something to digest and it’s actually on the list of the ones I want to edit/rework, because it is a bit old and my style has improved :)
hi hi ,big fan of the nipple joke ,got a question for ya ..
i just watched an easy german vid and a guy there used noch in a way that rubbed me the wrong way .. It went something like..
And here it got me wondering as its obviously meant to express something like
its implied he did it for an unusually long time ,but the notion sounded a bit weird to me ,as it is additional time ,granted ,but its also kinda hits odd for me with the implied place in time its describing. Does it have a bit of a dif vibe here or am i looking at the same exact notion ?
Hmmm, to me it feels more or less like the same.
Take this example:
– Die meisten Gäste sind gegen um 12 gegangen aber Maria und Thomas waren noch bis morgens da.
It’s the same thing, pretty much, just with completely different “scale”.
The person slept with a Kuscheltier for lots of time in addition to the time of life you’d usually do it.
Does that help :)?
it clears it up a bit yes. In bulgarian we actually have a pretty 1 to 1 translation for noch that hits all the same notions ,except when we refer to past events we wouldnt use it .Im glad however you guys knock it all out with the same word ,kinda saves time :)
thanks
Oh you mean още? So how would you say the example then? (I am learning Bulgarian at the moment, because of my girlfriend :).
its prob a bit of an odd quesiton but ,is your name Max by chance
Nope :)
I guess i would go for ” Спях с плюшено мече за по-дълго от нормалното ” which translates roughly to ” I slept with a teddybear for longer than the usual (the usual – нормалното, implies the expected time in your childhood you would have stopped, which you exceeded)
Ah that makes sense, too. Actually, the feeling I get is EXACTLY the same as from the phrasing with “noch” :)
Good day Emanuel, thank you for a wonderfully written article on the meaning of ‘noch’ which is one those difficult to grasp words. After reading your article, I tried a different approach and would appreciate your thoughts.
Although ‘noch’ can mean yet, just, [additionally], [intensifier], I found just applying an English word as a translation substitute added confusion because there are differences between languages over implied meanings in various contexts. So I took a “what is the meaning” approach. yet and just are time references.
Taking yet as the main translation, the word “yet” means “up to now” and also it means “so far”. I believe this matches exactly your explanation for the meaning of “noch”, and so almost all the sentences work if you substitute those two meanings for noch.
If noch means “up to now” and “so far”, I understand the implied meanings of ‘additional’ and ‘intensifier’ are conventions from common german usage of the word noch, rather than the meaning of the word itself. Evenso, when substituting the meaning of “up to now” and “so far” in place of “noch” I can see why those conventions make sense.
And because of usage differences, it is better to translate “noch” as “up to now” or “so far” instead of translating it as “yet” or “just”. I hope I have explained what it is that I mean in a way that you can understand. Try it and see if this approach works for you.
As always, if there are any insights that I have missed please do let me know.
With best regards from a new German learner