English realizes these through modal verbs but also through a range of modal adjuncts and so does German, but German also has a substantial number of modal particles for which there are no automatic equivalents in English.

A small word like doch in German illustrates just how complicated translation is. By using doch the speaker (or writer) turns a response into a retort and its connotation is of 'complacent superiority or challenge: by the way you talk (or act) one would think you didn't know (or were ignorant of the facts),e.g.

Have you been to the exhibition at the Royal Academy?

I never go to London.

Ich fahre doch nie nach London.

Notice that we are reduced to italicizing the never in English because there does not appear to be a suitable lexical item, i.e. in speech the modality would be signalled by intonation: a rise-fall. Indeed, even where it is possible to find lexical equivalents they are rarely one-to-one and may also require substantial syntactic re-adjustment. For example, Ist doch klar .. might by translated as it's obvious ...but another option would be... you ought to knom that, the choice

depending on the surrounding co-text and context. Nor, we might add, is doch unique. There are over a dozen more:

(1) mal and aber to show that the speaker is impressed; favourably or unfavourably:

Das ist mal (aber) eine Überraschung für dich

That's a disappointment for you

(2) schon and auch with the same function in exclamations:

Was der Kerl auch (schon) für Einfalle hat!

What strange ideas this fellow has!

(3) ja in statements to indicate that the speaker/writer believes that the hearer/reader is aware of the facts being stated:

Du hinkst ja - you're limping

or to express irony or sarcasm:

Du verstehst ja viel davon – a lot you know about it

It would be possible to continue and survey the uses of eben, denn, eigentlich, etwa, bloss, nur, sogar, noch, überhaupt. .. but the point has surely been made.

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