117 Keeping the channel open
117.1 Even when someone carries a conversation for a fairly long time, he or she does not
speak in a monologue (see 121 ). There are a number of words and phrases a speaker can
use in a conversation to ‘keep the channel open’: acknowledging the presence of the
listener; checking that the listener is following what is being said; and involving the
listener in what is being said. Many of the German expressions used for this purpose
do not have straightforward equivalents in English.
nicht wahr? nicht? gell? was? oder? ‘isn’t it? aren’t they’ (etc.)
ja, eben, gerade, nun, nämlich ‘you see’
sehen Sie? siehst du? (you) see’
verstehen Sie? verstehst du? ‘(you) understand?’
doch ‘surely/after all’ (rejecting an actual or anticipated resistance)
freilich ‘admittedly’ (making some kind of concession)
allerdings, immerhin can function like doch or like freilich(a) The commonest of these is nicht wahr? ‘isn’t it/aren’t they?’, etc. This is often
abbreviated to nicht? or (very informally) in northern Germany to ne? In southern
Germany gell? is common. was? is also colloquial and informal:Komisch, was?
Strange, eh?(b) The slightly more demanding oder? usually invites the listener in a fairly direct
way to agree with what has just been said:Das ist (doch) unverschämt, oder?
That is disgraceful, don’t you think?Wissen Sie? (or weißt du?) said like a question is a fairly neutral way of including the
listener in what is being said:Sie hat das Examen bestanden, weißt du, und jetzt geht sie auf
die Uni.
She passed the exam, you know, and now she’s going to university.It can, however, be quite assertive and challenging, especially when said with a level
intonation (i.e. without sounding overtly like a question):Das ist unverschämt, wissen Sie!
That is really disgraceful!Other phrases used in this way include sehen Sie? or siehst du? ‘(do you) see?’ and
verstehen Sie? or verstehst du? ‘(do you) understand?’(c) German has a lot of modal particles part of whose function is to ‘keep the channel
open’ to the other person in the conversation. The most common ones are listed below
alphabetically:117
COMMUNICATION STATEGIES