Does C# need the private keyword?
(inspired by this comment ) Is there ever a situation in which you need to use the private keyword? (In other words, a situation in which omitting the keyword would result in different behavior) public class Foo { public int Bar { get; private set; } } Omitting the word 'private' would change the accessibility. a situation in which omitting the keyword [ private ] would result in different behavior David Yaw's answer gave the most usual situation. Here is another one: In Account_generated.cs : // Generated file. Do not edit! public partial class Account { ... private partial class Helper { ...