4 ms·

What about the reform of the ß and the triple s ? I have to say that for me as a foreigner with a not-so-good level of German (but who need to use it regularly

by Gmo 11y ago

What about the reform of the ß and the triple s ? I have to say that for me as a foreigner with a not-so-good level of German (but who need to use it regularly), that reform was really confusing. I mean, the triple s, I understand, but the ß, it was hard to know when to put one before, but I find it even harder now ! Also because there are a bunch of words I learned which changed orthography. To be fair, I never learned the exact reasoning of the new reform, but I would have found more logical to just get rid of it altogether.

wolfgke 11y ago
> I mean, the triple s, I understand, but the ß, it was hard to know when to put one before, but I find it even harder now What do you mean with triple s? Triple consonants only occur (and only in the new spelling) if you concatenate a word that ends with two of the consonants with one that begins with the same, as Fluss[-]strecke or Schiff[-]fahrt. Very easy in my opinion. Much more interesting is the question when to use ss vs ß. Here the new spelling is in my opinion more logical: If the vowel before the ß was short in the old spelling (such as Kuß (kiss)), it is replaced by ss in the new spelling (Kuss). If, on the other hand, in the old spelling the vowel before ß is long (as in Straße (road)), the ß is also used in the new spelling. So the only remaining question is when to use single s vs. ß in words. Here I openly don't know the exact rules (but people told me there are).
- Gmo 11y ago
  Yes, that's what I meant with the triple s, and I do agree it's logical (if you read carefully that's what I was saying, but apparently, it was not clear enough). As for the ß, I didn't know the exact new rule. At least, there is some logic to it. Now, for a Frenchman, it's not always easy to know when the vowel is short and when it's long, so that's the difficult part ;) (for instance, I would not have thought the a in Straße is long !)

by Gmo 11y ago

wolfgke 11y ago

> I mean, the triple s, I understand, but the ß, it was hard to know when to put one before, but I find it even harder now What do you mean with triple s? Triple consonants only occur (and only in the new spelling) if you concatenate a word that ends with two of the consonants with one that begins with the same, as Fluss[-]strecke or Schiff[-]fahrt. Very easy in my opinion. Much more interesting is the question when to use ss vs ß. Here the new spelling is in my opinion more logical: If the vowel before the ß was short in the old spelling (such as Kuß (kiss)), it is replaced by ss in the new spelling (Kuss). If, on the other hand, in the old spelling the vowel before ß is long (as in Straße (road)), the ß is also used in the new spelling. So the only remaining question is when to use single s vs. ß in words. Here I openly don't know the exact rules (but people told me there are).

Gmo 11y ago
Yes, that's what I meant with the triple s, and I do agree it's logical (if you read carefully that's what I was saying, but apparently, it was not clear enough). As for the ß, I didn't know the exact new rule. At least, there is some logic to it. Now, for a Frenchman, it's not always easy to know when the vowel is short and when it's long, so that's the difficult part ;) (for instance, I would not have thought the a in Straße is long !)