What is a particle in linguistics?

In linguistics, a particle is a word that does not change its form through inflection and has a grammatical function, often expressing relationships between different elements within a sentence. Particles are more flexible in their placement within a sentence and are not tied to a specific position; they can appear before or after the words they modify. Particles can be attached to verbs, nouns, or adjectives, modifying their meanings.

For example, in English (a phonographic language):

Particles are commonly used in phrasal verbs and prepositions such as “up,” “out,” and “about.”

up: wake up

out: go out

about: talk about

English expresses various tenses with inflections by using distinct grammatical structures, suffixes, or auxiliary verbs.

Mandarin Chinese uses particles (auxiliary words) to convey different verb tenses without inflections, similar to many phonographic languages. For example:

The particle “会” (huì) is used to indicate Future Tense: 我会吃 (Wǒ huì chī) = I will eat.

The particle “在” (zài) is used for Present Continuous/Progressive Tense: 我在吃 (Wǒ zài chī) = I am eating.

The particle “了” (le) is used for Past Tense: 我吃了 (Wǒ chī le) = I ate. “了” (le) always follows the verb to indicate past tense.