3 ms·

I thought ß was being phased out. In fact, I heard that like 10 years ago at school during a German class.

by nawitus 12y ago

mnkypete 12y ago
That would've been too easy - instead it's now used in fewer places, but with new rules ;) When it's long-pronounced, ß is still used, like in Fuß or Stoß. In words like Fluss it's replaced with ss.
hamvocke 12y ago
Not entirely. The spelling reform (about 10 years ago) somewhat reduced the use of ß but you still use it frequently after a diphthong (as in "Straße" [street]).
- morsch 12y ago
  That's just a long vowel, not a diphthong (literally "two sounds"; incidentally, "sounds" has a diphthong in it).
  - pjmlp 12y ago
    I started living in Germany right after it was adopted, and still cannot get the long vs short vowel history for ß. They just sound the same to my hears, so I got around it by memorizing the respective use cases.
    - ygra 12y ago
      I tend to still write in the old spelling (I didn't have to take exams in the reformed spelling yet so I never bothered to memorise all the braindeadness) and rely on Word/Outlook to correct me where necessary. That works quite well so far.
davidp 12y ago
It might depend on where you live. I took a recent trip through Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and I noticed that Austrian street signs tended to use "Straße" while German and Swiss tended to use "Strasse". OTOH it could also be just spending priorities of updating street signs vs. other things. I knew nothing about the phasing-out of ß until reading the comments on this article.
- taejo 12y ago
  > German and Swiss tended to use "Strasse". In Switzerland, "ss" is standard (Duden says: "In der Schweiz kann das ß generell durch ss ersetzt werden <§ 25 E2>.") I haven't seen "Strasse" on signs in Germany, but there might be regional variation (since street signs are a local-government responsibility)

3 ms·

I thought ß was being phased out. In fact, I heard that like 10 years ago at school during a German class.

by nawitus 12y ago

I thought ß was being phased out. In fact, I heard that like 10 years ago at school during a German class.

mnkypete 12y ago
That would've been too easy - instead it's now used in fewer places, but with new rules ;) When it's long-pronounced, ß is still used, like in Fuß or Stoß. In words like Fluss it's replaced with ss.
hamvocke 12y ago
Not entirely. The spelling reform (about 10 years ago) somewhat reduced the use of ß but you still use it frequently after a diphthong (as in "Straße" [street]).
- morsch 12y ago
  That's just a long vowel, not a diphthong (literally "two sounds"; incidentally, "sounds" has a diphthong in it).
  - pjmlp 12y ago
    I started living in Germany right after it was adopted, and still cannot get the long vs short vowel history for ß. They just sound the same to my hears, so I got around it by memorizing the respective use cases.
    - ygra 12y ago
      I tend to still write in the old spelling (I didn't have to take exams in the reformed spelling yet so I never bothered to memorise all the braindeadness) and rely on Word/Outlook to correct me where necessary. That works quite well so far.
davidp 12y ago
It might depend on where you live. I took a recent trip through Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and I noticed that Austrian street signs tended to use "Straße" while German and Swiss tended to use "Strasse". OTOH it could also be just spending priorities of updating street signs vs. other things. I knew nothing about the phasing-out of ß until reading the comments on this article.
- taejo 12y ago
  > German and Swiss tended to use "Strasse". In Switzerland, "ss" is standard (Duden says: "In der Schweiz kann das ß generell durch ss ersetzt werden <§ 25 E2>.") I haven't seen "Strasse" on signs in Germany, but there might be regional variation (since street signs are a local-government responsibility)