auch nur vs nur

Question

In the 1st episode of the Dark TV series, a teenager is talking about his dreams with his dead father:

Ich glaube, dass er mir etwas sagen will. Oder vielleicht will ich auch nur, dass er mir etwas sagt.
_{I think he wants to tell me something. Or maybe I just want he tell me something}

I don't think "auch" means "too" here. What does it mean?

Answer 1

It is a modal particle in this sentence. Modal particles are used with a high frequency in spoken German, they are uses less often in written German, and they are almost non-existent in many other languages, including English.

There are more than 100 questions and answers about modal particles here on stackexchange, and if you want to read questions and answers in German, you should search for Modalpartikel or Abtönungspartikel.

The point with modal particles is that they do not contribute anything to the poposition of the sentence. The proposition is what makes a sentence true or false. It is the rational and logical meaning of a sentence. Modal particles have no influence on this part of the meaning. But they convey emotions and moods.

There are two problems that make modal particles so difficult to understand for People who want to learn German as a foreign language:

1. Every single German modal particle is a homonym of another word that belongs to a different word category.
2. The best way to translate them into English is to ignore them (because they are almost non-existent in English and contribute nothing to the actual meaning of the sentence).

Here is an example: Someone orders a drink in a crowded restaurant, so you would expect it to take many minutes for the waiter to bring the order, but instead you get your drink in less than a minute. You are happily surprised and say:

1. Oh, das ging aber schnell. = Oh, that was quick.
2. Oh, das ging schnell. = Oh, that was quick.

Both versions translate to the very same English sentence, because the proposition is exactly the same. But a German native speaker never would use the version 2, because it is emotionless. It does not transport the happy and surprised mood of the speaker. The word »aber« carries exact this mood in this special context. In other contexts it can transport another mood, and this is the case in your sentence:

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Jonas Kahnwald and his psychotherapist Peter Doppler walk side by side through a forest in episode 1 of season 1 of the Netflix series Dark. They talk about the suicide of Jonas' father two month ago, and Jonas says, that he sometimes sees his dad. Peter asks, if this is in his dreams, Jonas nods, then Peter asks if Jonas still takes his medicine, then Jonas nods again and after a while (at about 8:55) Jonas says

Ich glaub', dass er mir was sagen will. - Oder vielleicht will ich auch nur, dass er mir was sagt.

In the short break between the two sentences (where I've written a dash) he shrugs his shoulders. This gesture, the tone of his voice, the slow walk through a calm and quiet forest and the modal particle auch together transport the same mood: Jonas feels unsure about what his father wants in his dreams. And Jonas feels vulnerable. The whole scene tells, that Jonas is sad about his father's suicide. Jonas don't understand why it happened, and now he is unsure about anything. The whole scene with Jonas and Peter does not only introduce Peter to the audience, it also draws a picture of Jonas' mood. Jonas is depicted as a quiet, withdrawn young man in this scene, and the modal particle »auch« is just one tiny tile in that mosaic.

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If you want to learn more about modal particles, click on one of the links in the second paragraph of my answer.