It is commonly agreed that particles (...and all that stuff) are not easily learned, at least not by somebody whose L1 does not contain many particles. But how about an L1 that has lots of particles as well? Do similarities between L1 and L2 facilitate the acquisition of particles? Using the example of the Dutch particle NOU in the interlanguage of German learners, we will see several kinds of crosslinguistic influence (CLI) in L2 production. The presentation will be restricted to NOU preceding face-threatening acts.

CLI between closely related languages shows that similarities are not sufficiently obvious to be clear for both learner and analist. Although we may doubt that learners consciously perceive interlingual and intralingual similarities in discourse particles, their solutions in spontanous speech can be inspiring for the analysis, whether contrastive or not. Moreover, interlanguage research reveals the need for a different description of particles in grammars.

Interlanguage usage of particles is also a matter of intercultural pragmatics. It does not contribute much to ‘correct’ sentences but primarily to the learner’s behavior in intercultural communication. Stripped to it’s bare bones, the hypothesis is that formal and functional similarities between L1 and L2 can lead to covert intercultural misunderstandings.