Finally learned about the usage of the German word “halt”
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/12/17
German’s use the word “halt” very often, but I never fully understood when and why.
I had a kind of feeling (that’s how I learned speaking German as a kid anyway: we stayed in Germany often, they did not speak Dutch, so it was about the only way to start communicating).
So last year, I asked one of my friends Kristian Köhntopp, see the Tweets further below.
In summary, “halt” is a modal particle, so not like Kristian suggested an interjection (German: interjektion).
This also explains why I had trouble understanding them, as modal particles are only used in a limited number of languages (not English), indicate either a mode or filler, and ofen “the translation is often not straightforward and depends on the context”.
Fillers are used in more languages than modal particles; English contains many (like uh, you know, right, actually) and easier to get right than non-filler modal particles.
Related links for futher reading:
- Modal particle – Wikipedia / Modalpartikel: Bedeutung einzelner Modalpartikeln – Wikipedia / Modaal partikel – Wikipedia
- Filler (linguistics) – Wikipedia / Füllwort – Wikipedia / Stopwoord (taalkunde) – Wikipedia
- Interjection – Wikipedia / Interjektion – Wikipedia / Tussenwerpsel – Wikipedia
- Halt – Wikipedia
- [WayBack] Duden | halt (Partikel) | Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft
- [WayBack] Duden | halt (Interjektion) | Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft
–jeroen
https://twitter.com/isotopp/status/1242367411430608898
–jeroen
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