Quick answer
Particles add attitude, not information. Remove one and the sentence still means the same thing — but it loses its tone.
The core six
| Particle | Adds | Example |
|---|---|---|
| же | emphasis, impatience | Где же ты был? |
| ведь | “after all, you know” | Ты ведь зна́ешь его́. |
| -то | softening, vagueness | Я что-то уста́л. |
| -ка | a casual nudge | Дай-ка посмотре́ть. |
| ра́зве | surprise, doubt | Ра́зве он не знал? |
| не́ужели | real disbelief | Не́ужели э́то пра́вда? |
All of them are unstressed and lean on the word in front, which is why -то and -ка are written with a hyphen.
же and ведь in practice
Же pushes: impatience, insistence, “I did say”. Ведь appeals to something you both already know. Using them correctly is one of the fastest ways to sound natural; using them wrongly mostly just sounds odd, not wrong.
A word of caution
Particles cannot be learned from a table. Collect them: when you hear же or ведь in a film, note the whole sentence and the situation. After twenty examples the feel arrives, and no explanation will get you there faster.
Ну
The most frequent particle of all is ну — “well, so, come on”. Ну что? (well?), ну ла́дно (all right then), ну и что? (so what?). It is the sound of spoken Russian thinking.
Typical mistakes
Я же о́чень же уста́л.
Я же о́чень уста́л.
One particle per clause is plenty.
Translating же as a word
Render it with English stress or “do”
Я же говори́л = “I DID tell you”.
Check yourself
What does Я же говори́л! mean?