In grammar, the term particle (abbreviated ) has a traditional meaning, as a part of speech that cannot be inflected, and a modern meaning, as a function word (functor) associated with another word or phrase in order to impart meaning. Although a particle may have an intrinsic meaning and may fit into other grammatical categories, the fundamental idea of the particle is to add context to the sentence, expressing a mood or indicating a specific action.
In English, for example, the phrase "oh well" has no purpose in speech other than to convey a mood. The word "up" is a particle in the phrase "look up" (as in "look up this topic"), implying that one researches something rather than that one literally gazes skywards.
Many languages use particles in varying amounts and for varying reasons. In Hindi, they may be used as honorifics, or to indicate emphasis or negation.
In some languages, they are clearly defined; for example, in Chinese, there are three types of (; ): structural, aspectual, and modal. Structural particles are used for grammatical relations. Aspectual particles signal grammatical aspects. Modal particles express linguistic modality.
However, Polynesian languages, which are almost devoid of inflection, use particles extensively to indicate mood, tense, and case.
Modern meaning
In modern grammar, a particle is a function word that must be associated with another word or phrase to impart meaning, i.e., it does not have its own lexical definition. According to this definition, particles are a separate part of speech and are distinct from other classes of function words, such as articles, prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs. Languages vary widely in how much they use particles, some using them extensively and others more commonly using alternative devices such as prefixes/suffixes, inflection, auxiliary verbs and word order. Particles are typically words that encode grammatical categories (such as negation, mood, tense, or case), clitics, fillers or (oral) discourse markers such as well, um, etc. Particles are never inflected.McArthur, Tom: "The Oxford Companion to the English Language", pp. 72–76, Oxford University Press, 1992.
Afrikaans Some commonly used particles in Afrikaans include: 2: Afrikaans has a double negation system, as in:
The first 1 is analysed as an adverb, while the second 2 as a negation particle. : Infinitive verbs are preceded by the complementiser and the infinitival particle , e.g.
or : Both and are genitive particles, e.g.
and : These two particles are found in constructions like
Arabic Particles in Arabic can take the form of a single root letter before a given word, like "" ('and'), "" ('so') and "" ('to'). However, other particles like "" (which marks a question) can be complete words as well.
Chinese
There are three types of (; particles) in Chinese: Structural, Aspectual, and Modal. Structural particles are used for grammatical relations. Aspectual particles signal grammatical aspects. Modal particles express linguistic modality. Note that particles are different from (; modal verbs) in Chinese.
English Particle is a somewhat nebulous term for a variety of small words that do not conveniently fit into other classes of words. The Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language defines a particle as a "word that does not change its form through inflection and does not fit easily into the established system of parts of speech". The term includes the "adverbial particles" like up or out in verbal idioms (phrasal verbs) such as "look up" or "knock out"; it also includes the "infinitival particle" to, the "negative particle" not, the "imperative particles" do and let, and sometimes "pragmatic particles" (also called "fillers" or "discourse markers") like oh and well.
German A German modal particle serves no necessary syntactical function, but expresses the speaker's attitude towards the utterance. Modal particles include and others. Some of these also appear in non-particle forms. , for example, is also the conjunction but. In , "He is American, but he speaks German well," is a conjunction connecting two sentences. But in , the is a particle, with the sentence perhaps best translated as "What good German he speaks!"Martin Durrell, Using German, Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition (2003), p. 156–164. These particles are common in speech but rarely found in written language, except that which has a spoken quality (such as online messaging).
Hindi There are different types of particles present in Hindi: emphatic particles, limiter particles, negation particles, affirmative particles, honorific particles, topic-marker particle and case-marking particles. Some common particles of Hindi are mentioned in the table below: Hindi particlesTypeParticles NotesSentencesEmphatic
Particles () — Exclusive Emphatic Particle () — Inclusive Emphatic Particle () — Manner Emphatic Particle () can roughly be translated as "only", "just", "alone" etc () can roughly be translated as "also", "too", "can't even" etc () You brought just coffee? () You can't even write? () I'll (instantly) go and (instantly) come back.Limiter Particles () — mere () — mere, only () comes before a noun it modifies, and comes after a noun or verb or adverb when the meaning of "just/mere" is conveyed. () We have merely two oranges.Negation
Particles () — Indicative Negation () — Subjunctive Negation () — Imperative Negation () can have multiple positions in the same sentence while still conveying the same meaning. By default, it comes before the main verb of the sentence (or after the verb to emphasise). Usually, it doesn't appear at the end of a sentence and also at the beginning if the sentence starts with a noun. () and () have rather restricted positions in a sentence and can usually only appear around the verb in subjunctive mood or imperative form, respectively. () One shouldn't do [like] that. () It'll be good if it doesn't happen [like that]. () Don't do it, man!Affirmative Particles () — "yes"Kalika Bali, "F0 cues for the discourse functions of "hã" in Hindi" https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221486826_F0_cues_for_the_discourse_functions_of_ha_in_Hindi () — "honorific yes" () — "emphatic yes" () — "emphatic yes" () Yes, I (will) do it. () Yes, and you (formal)? () Yes sure, I will do it. () (I already said) yes! I have done it.Honorific Particles () — "honour giving particle"It comes after a noun and gives the noun an honorific value. Compare with the honorific particles in Japanese, e.g. and . () How is Mr. Rahul?Topic Marker
Particles (to) — "topic marker" is used to mark the topic in the sentence which is often not the same the subject of a sentence. It indicates either presuppositionally shared information or shift in thematic orientation.Case markers and Morphology: Addressing the crux of the fluency problem in English-Hindi SMT: https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/P09-1090.pdf It has a rather flexible position in a sentence; it always goes after the topic of the sentence, even if that topic contains other particles. () [Speaking of] Neha [she] is good. () You "sure are" good but not that much.Question Marker Particles () — "question marker" () — "doubt / confirmatory marker"The question-marker can come at the beginning or the end of a sentence as its default position but can also appear in between the sentence if it cannot also be interpreted as its non-particle meaning of "what" at a mid position in the sentence. can only come at the end of a sentence and nowhere else. It conveys that the asker is in doubt or is seeking for a confirmation.Negation in modern Hindi-Urdu: the development of nahII: https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/downloads/g158bh795?locale=en () Does he sing? () It should be done like this, no? () [Are you sure that] we do this? / we are doing this?Case Marker Particles () — "dative marker" & "accusative marker" () — "ablative marker" & "instrumental marker" () — "ergative marker" () — "genitive marker" () — "locative marker" "in / inside" () — "locative marker" "on / at" () — "locative marker" "up to, until, as far as" () — "semblative marker" "like, -ish, -esque"The case marking particles require the noun to be declined to be in their oblique case forms. However, these markers themselves (except for one) can inflect and change forms depending on the gender of the noun they modify. CaseHindiergative ()accusative ()dativeinstrumental ()ablativegenitive ()inessive ()adessive ()terminative ()semblative () () He/she hit him/her with it. () Is it his? () Take it out from that a keep it on this. () It must be inside it. () Pour it on that. () No one's like me. () Do it until four o'clock.
Japanese and Korean
The term particle is often used in descriptions of Japanese List of Japanese particles and Korean, List of Korean particles where they are used to mark nouns according to their grammatical case or thematic relation in a sentence or clause. Linguistic analyses describe them as suffixes, clitics, or postpositions. There are sentence-tagging particles such as Japanese question markers.
Polynesian languages Polynesian languages are almost devoid of inflection, and use particles extensively to indicate mood, tense, and case. Suggs, discussing the deciphering of the rongorongo script of Rapa Nui, describes them as all-important. In Māori for example, the versatile particle can signal the imperative mood, the vocative case, the future tense, or the subject of a sentence formed with most passive verbs. The particle signals the past imperfect tense, the object of a transitive verb or the subject of a sentence formed with "neuter verbs" (a form of passive verb), as well as the prepositions in, at and from.
Tokelauan In Tokelauan, is used when describing personal names, month names, and nouns used to describe a collaborative group of people participating in something together. It also can be used when a verb does not directly precede a pronoun to describe said pronouns. Its use for pronouns is optional but mostly in this way. cannot be used if the noun it is describing follows any of the prepositions , or . A couple of the other ways unrelated to what is listed above that is used is when preceding a locative or place name. However, if is being used in this fashion, the locative or place name must be the subject of the sentence. Another particle in Tokelauan is , or sometimes . This article is used before a person's name as well as the names of months and the particle is used before pronouns when these instances are following the prepositions or . is a particle used if following the preposition .
Russian In Russian, particles sometimes play an important role making an additional nuance for a meaning of a phrase or of a whole sentence. One example is the particle , which imparts conditional mood (subjunctive) to a verb it is applied to or to a whole sentence. Other examples are and which are usually used to emphasise or accent other words. Generally there are lots of different particles in Russian of many kinds. Some of them are complex, consisting of other particles, others are as simple as one letter ().
Turkish In some sources, exclamations and conjunctions are also considered Turkish particles. In this article, exclamations and conjunctions will not be dealt with, but only Turkish particles. The main particles used in Turkish are:
used with ('but'). , another , since , one , only , regarding , right , not , mention , as much , until
, due , so , before , informal , like , by , for , withused with ('and') , until , against , although or despite
, corresponding , prior to , due to , beyond , despite , only , as if , then , row , to , alone