These are little words, often barely audible in conversation, which is where you most often use them. They are used by speakers, not to communicate information about the world around us, such as nouns, adjectives and verbs do, but rather to communicate attitude and (shared) knowledge. They are unstresed, which is the reason why they are difficult to hear, they are found in the central adverb position, same as the negation ’ikke’, and as I will show below, they can be combined to form chains of modal particles, often accompanied by ’ikke’. You will notice in the following examples and translations, that we often can’t pinpoint what word in English the modal particle translates into, and this is precisely because of their cognitive nature.
Jo
Let’s begin with ’jo’, which expresses the notion, that the speaker knows, or believes, that the hearer is already (or should be) familiar with the content of the utterance or agrees with its conclusion.
(1) A: Mor, skal jeg i skole i morgen?
Mom, am I going to school tomorrow?
B: Ja, det er jo mandag
Yes, it’s Monday (yes, of course, it’s Monday)
In (1) the mother uses ’jo’ to underscore to the child that going to school naturally follows from that day being a Monday, and further, that the child should or must already know this.
As mentioned, modal particles are often used together with the negation ’ikke’ as in (2).
(2) A: Vil du have en ske?
Would you like a spoon?
B: Ja selvfølgelig, man kan jo ikke spise suppe med en gaffel
Yes, of course, you can’t eat soup with a fork (obviously!)
In this example, a patron is surprised by a waiter’s question due to the obvious nonesense of it, and underscores this, not only by ’selvfølgelig’ but also by the use of ’jo ikke’ which translates as ”obviously not”.
The modal particle ’jo’ is one of the shortest and also weakest, when it comes to the way it sounds, and for that reasons, along with the fact that it is never stressed, it often amounts to nothing more than an ’o’ when you hear it. Compare the two sentences in (3a-b) which are phonetic representations of (1B) and (2B). (disse skal kunne afspilles ved klik)
(3) a. [yá deo mánda]
b. [ya sæføli man ka o ég spi:s såbe mæ n gáfl]
Lige
Another frequently used modal particle is ’lige’, which indicates, that an action or event happens without effort, duration, planning or thought. Some examples are shown in (4).
(4) a. Vil du lige hente avisen til mig?
Will you (just) get the paper for me?
b. Vil du lige holde min ballon mens jeg klapper?
Will you hold my baloon (real quick) while I clap?
c. Peter slettede lige hele min harddisk i går!
Peter (just) deleted my entire hard disk yesterday!
In (4a) the speaker is asking the listener to get his or her newspaper, and we understand from the use of ’lige’ that this action would note require much effort nor time.
In (4b) a child asks an adult to hold a balloon just for a moment because the child needs to clap along with everyone else, and this is difficult while holding a balloon. However, we know that the clapping is not expected to go on for long as indicated by the child’s use of ’lige’.
In (4c) the speaker appears agitated because someone named Peter has erased the hard disk of the speaker’s computer, presumably deleting important information, and the contrast between, on the one hand, the quick and effortless action of deleting and, on the other hand, the importance of the deleted contents of the hard disk, is underscored by the use of ’lige’.
Chains of modal particles
As mentioned above, modal particles are very often used in combination to form chains, in which case the resulting reading is the sum of all the used parts and not a reading of each. An example illustrates this in (5).
(5) vi kan jo ikke bare lige rykke vores bryllup en uge, fordi du skal på ferie til Hawai’i
we can’t just reschedule our wedding, because you’re going on vacation to Hawai’i
The modal particles used in (5) are ’jo’, ’bare’ and ’lige’ combined with the negation ’ikke’. Together they convey the meaning ’as you should know, we can’t just reschedule, without great effort and great inconvenience to everyone, and for the sake of your insignificant vacation plans’. It is the use of ’jo’ which adds the meaning ’as you should know’, while ’bare’ means both ’just’ while also combining with ’lige’ to add the ’without effort’ and also the notion of the vacation plans being insignificant. So, because of the context, the meaning of ’bare lige’ carries over into the next sentence, indicating that the going on vacation to Hawai’i is not important enough a reason to reschedule the wedding.
| Modal particle | Meaning | ||
| Jo | as you should knowas is evidentas we both know | Da | as you should knowas is evidentas we both knowcontrary to what you’re saying |
| Bare | Without further efforts needed | Dog | Despite and contrary to what was just said |
| Lige | Quickly, briefly, effortlessly, just like that | Så | As a consequence of the previous |
| Nu | Contrary to what was stated or thought | Vel | Presumably, supposedly |
| Altså | Contrary to what one might assume | Vist | Probably |
| Også | In accordance with what was stated previously confirming it | Ellers | Normally, as previously foreseen or predicted |
| Sådan | Like that, in a certain way which is difficult to pinpoint | Engang | Once, not even (ikke engang) |
| Sgu | Emphasis, conviction | Skam | As a matter of fact |