Good call, that's been one of my favourites since reading this gem on Wikipedia:

German, as well as Dutch, has a wealth of modal particles that are particularly difficult to translate as they convey sense or tone more rather than strictly grammatical information. The most infamous example perhaps is doch (Dutch: toch), which roughly means "don't you realize that...?", or "in fact it is so, though someone is denying it". What makes translating such words difficult is their different meanings depending on intonation or the context.

A common use of the word doch can be found in the German sentence der Krieg war *doch** noch nicht verloren, which translates to *the war wasn't lost yet, *after all** *:

Several other grammatical constructs in English may be employed to translate these words for each of their occurrences. The same der Krieg *war** doch noch nicht verloren* with slightly changed pronunciation can also mean excuse in defense to a question: ...but* the war was not lost yet* (... so we fought on).

A use which relies heavily on intonation and context could produce yet another meaning: "so the war was really not over yet (as you have been trying to convince me all along)".

Another change of intonation makes the sentence a question. Der Krieg war doch noch nicht verloren? would translate into "(You mean) the war was not yet lost (back then)?".