We provide a model calculation of the contribution of the non-adiabatic response of the substrate electronic degrees of freedom to the energy dissipated by a fast neutral particle scattered under a glancing angle of incidence from a metal surface. These degrees of freedom couple to the monopole charge or static induced dipole of the moving particle. The coupling strength is additionally modulated by the corrugation of the surface electronic density profile. We calculate the mean energy loss and mean number of electron-hole pairs created due to the interaction with an Al(111)-surface, via both types of coupling, of neutral Ar atoms as a function of the parallel velocity of the incident particles in the velocity range 0.02–1 vF (where νF is the Fermi velocity of electrons in the metal). We find that the corrugation-induced oscillation of the coupling strength between the traversing particle and the surface can provide a significant contribution to the energy loss, irrespective of the nature of the coupling assumed.