Word
Das Gerücht ist doch wahr. Sie ist schwanger!
Meaning
The rumor is true after all. She is pregnant!
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Das Gerücht ist doch wahr. Sie ist schwanger!
sein
to be
sie
she
wahr
true
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
Questions & Answers about Das Gerücht ist doch wahr. Sie ist schwanger!
How does doch change the meaning of the sentence here?
In this sentence, doch is a modal particle that translates best to "after all." Without it, the sentence just states a neutral fact: "The rumor is true." Adding doch expresses that this truth goes against previous doubts or expectations.
I learned that doch means "yes" when answering a negative question. Is this the same thing?
It is related! You use doch as a single-word answer to disagree with a negative statement. Here, it is tucked inside the sentence as a flavor word (a modal particle), but it still carries that same feeling of "contrary to what was thought."
Why is it Das Gerücht? Is there a trick to remember the gender?
While you always have to memorize the gender with the noun, a helpful pattern is that many German nouns starting with the prefix Ge- are neuter (das). Other examples you might know from earlier lessons are das Gesicht (the face) and das Geschenk (the present).
Could I use echt instead of wahr to say "true"?
They are close in meaning, but wahr is the best choice here. Wahr means "true" as in factual, which makes sense for a rumor. Echt means "real" or "authentic," which is used more for physical things like real gold or genuine leather.