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### The Magic Word *doch*

Imagine you are playing a board game and someone accuses you: "You aren't shuffling the cards!" In English, you would defend yourself by saying, "Yes, I am!"

In German, answering a negative statement or question with **ja** (yes) can be confusing—it might imply that you agree with the negative assumption! Instead, use the particle **doch**.

When you use *doch* at the beginning of a reply, it means "Yes, I am," "Yes, I do," or "On the contrary!" It directly contradicts a false negative statement.

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### Insisting on the Rules

*Doch* is incredibly useful during competitive games when players argue about the rules or whose turn it is.

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You will often hear **dran** combined with the verb **sein** to express whose turn it is. If someone incorrectly says, "It's not your turn!" or "I can't draw two cards?", push back with *doch*.

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### Contradicting in the Past

You can also use *doch* to contradict negative statements about the past.

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Contradicting negatives (doch)

adjective

adverb

auxiliary verb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Definite articles and gender (der, die, das)

Indefinite articles (ein, eine)

Regular verbs and statement word order (ich -e, er -t)

The second person (du -st, Sie -en)

Yes/No questions

The verb 'to have' (habe, hast, hat)

Plural pronouns and regular verbs (wir, ihr, sie)

Plural 'to be' and 'to have' (sind, haben)

Plural nouns and the plural article (die)

Sentence negation (nicht)

Noun negation (kein, keine)

Question words (wer, was, wo, wie)

Numbers 0 to 12 (null, eins, zwei)

The accusative case (den, die, das)

Indefinite accusative articles (einen, keinen)

Direct object pronouns (mich, dich, ihn)

There is / there are (es gibt)

Vowel changes: e to i/ie (er spricht, sie liest)

Vowel changes: a to ä (er fährt)

Weather and conditions (es regnet)

First- and second-person possessives in the nominative (mein, dein, Ihr)

First- and second-person possessives in the accusative (meinen, deinen, Ihren)

Third-person and plural possessives (sein, ihr, unser, euer)

Possession with names (Annas Auto)

Demonstrative pronouns (dieser, diese, dieses)

Expressing preference (gern, lieber)

Asking about direction and origin (woher, wohin)

Expressing ability (können)

Polite requests (möchten)

Expressing intention (wollen)

Modal verbs of obligation and permission (müssen, dürfen)

Separable prefix verbs

Adverbs of frequency (immer, oft, manchmal, nie)

The Dative case and definite articles (dem, der, den)

Dative indefinite and negative articles (einem, einer, keinem)

Dative personal pronouns (mir, dir, ihm, ihr...)

Dative verbs (helfen, danken, gefallen, schmecken)

Dative prepositions (aus, bei, mit, nach...)

Accusative prepositions (für, ohne, gegen)

Two-way prepositions for location (in, an, auf...)

Informal singular imperative (mach, komm)

Plural and formal imperative (macht, machen Sie)

Coordinating conjunctions (und, oder, aber, denn)

Simple past of sein and haben (war, hatte)

The perfect tense: regular verbs (gemacht, gespielt)

Past tense: irregular verbs (ge-...-en)

The perfect tense: mixed verbs (gebracht, gekannt)

The perfect tense with sein (ist gegangen)

The perfect tense: separable verbs (eingekauft)

The perfect tense: inseparable and -ieren verbs (besucht, studiert)

Informal singular commands (mach, lern)

Numbers 13 to 20 (dreizehn to zwanzig)

Counting by tens to 100 (dreißig, vierzig)

Telling time (Uhr, halb, Viertel, vor, nach)

Numbers 21 to 99 (einundzwanzig, zweiunddreißig)

Greetings and farewells

Thank you, sorry and good wishes

Everyday replies

Numbers 100 to 1,000,000 (hundert, tausend...)

Becoming and getting (werden)

The impersonal pronoun (man)

Indefinite pronouns (jemand, niemand...)

Time sequence prepositions (vor, nach, bei)

Time span prepositions (von... bis, seit, für)

Adverbs of sequence (zuerst, dann, danach)

Two-way prepositions for direction (in, auf, an...)

Directional adverbs (hin, her)

Placement verbs (setzen, stellen, legen)

Months of the year (Januar, Februar)

The four seasons (Frühling, Sommer)

Time prepositions and indefinite pronouns (an, in, um)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 19th (am ersten)

Ordinals 20th and beyond (-ste, -sten)

Placement vs. location verbs (stellen vs. stehen)

Accusative reflexive pronouns (mich, dich, sich)

Accusative reflexive verbs (sich freuen)

Dative reflexive pronouns (mir, dir, sich)

Dative reflexive verbs (sich etwas merken)

Ordinal numbers 11th to 19th (-te)

Temporal prepositions (an, in, um)

Double objects with nouns

Double objects with pronouns

The modal verb for advice (sollen)

Simple past of modal verbs (musste, wollte...)

Simple past of common irregulars (wurde, wusste, es gab)

Adverbial connectors of consequence (deshalb, darum...)

Subordinate clauses for statements (dass)

Question	Answer
to shuffle / to mix	mischen
the card	die Karte
the board game	das Brettspiel
Yes, I am! I'm shuffling the cards to start the board game!	Doch, ich mische die Karten, um das Brettspiel anzufangen!
one's turn / next (whose turn it is)	dran
to draw / to pull	ziehen
Yes, you are! It's your turn and you have to draw a card.	Doch, du bist dran und musst eine Karte ziehen.
to cheat	schummeln
Yes, I did! I saw the boy and he's cheating!	Doch, ich habe den Jungen gesehen und er schummelt!
the die / the dice	der Würfel
to roll the dice	würfeln
Yes, I did! I already had the die in my hand to roll it!	Doch, ich hatte den Würfel schon in der Hand, um zu würfeln!
the round	die Runde
the point	der Punkt
Yes, I did! I had a lot of points in the first round!	Doch, ich hatte in der ersten Runde viele Punkte!
Yes, he was! It was my brother's turn and he wanted to draw!	Doch, mein Bruder war dran und wollte ziehen!
Yes, she is! She's rolling the dice to get more points.	Doch, sie würfelt, um mehr Punkte zu bekommen.
Yes, you are! You're cheating because you aren't shuffling the cards!	Doch, du schummelst, weil du die Karten nicht mischst!
Yes, we are! We're playing one more round to collect more points!	Doch, wir spielen noch eine Runde, um mehr Punkte zu sammeln!
Yes, you can! In this board game you're allowed to draw two cards.	Doch, bei diesem Brettspiel darf man zwei Karten ziehen.
Yes, it was! The die was important for my round!	Doch, der Würfel war wichtig für meine Runde!

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