Doch!

Doch is a german word that does not have an English translation. This has been bothering me ever since I learned about it. How can a word not have a translation? So, naturally, I tried looking it up. Google translation says that the word "doch" can mean "but", "nevertheless", "yes", "no" (how can a word mean yes and no?), "though", "however"...and the list keeps going. Sorry, google...you're not helping here. Leo.com, a fabulous German dictionary, says that it means "still", "after all", "yet", but it is usually found in conjunction with a verb to give the verb more of an emphasis. Leo.com was a little more helpful, but what does it mean to give a verb more of an emphasis? The whole point of a verb is to let one know what they're doing, so why need emphasis?

It was a wine tasting party that I truly meant what this word means. I was talking with a delightful couple, and the husband was born and raised in the German-speaking part of Belgium. I heard the word "doch" being said from afar, so I asked the husband "What exactly does this word mean?" His response? "There is no translation." Yes...I got that...how would a German speaker use it then?

After some thought, this husband finally found an answer for me. He broke the meaning into two parts.

1. Doch can mean "literally". Not literally the word "literally" (like the pun there?) but when people use it in a slang way, such as "I literally ate a ton of ice cream." Ich habe doch eine Tonne Eis gegessen. No, you didn't eat a ton of ice cream, or else you'd be dead because your stomach would explode. 
2. Doch also means "yea-huh" or "nuh-uh", usually said by a child or a very immature adult. If you could say "yea-huh", or "nuh-uh", doch can be used. For example, when you tell a child (or me...), "No, you can't have ice cream for breakfast!" the child (or me...) would say "Doch!" Translation: yea-huh...I can too have ice cream for breakfast!

While a night of wine tasting may not have been the proper classroom to learn the meaning of the word "doch," this is the gist that I got. There may be more meanings (or more correct meanings) for the word, and if there are, PLEASE let me know! It is my goal before going back home to be fluent in the word "Doch!"