110 replies to this topic

[Moogle]

A. J. Raffles, on Mar 25 2006, 10:43 PM, said:

Daß, Daka.

Or
Dass I believe

[A. J. Raffles]

Erm, yes, after the new spelling. But we've had so many spelling reforms that it's hard to tell how to spell anyway, so people tend to go with what feels more right. And 'daß' feels more right to me, because that's how I learnt it back in 1986.

[Moogle]

Mmmm, yes, I know
Just that takes a bit of gettin used to to gett hem fancy special foreign characters  

[DannyMc252]

A. J. Raffles, on Mar 26 2006, 07:14 AM, said:

Erm, yes, after the new spelling. But we've had so many spelling reforms that it's hard to tell how to spell anyway, so people tend to go with what feels more right. And 'daß' feels more right to me, because that's how I learnt it back in 1986.

I'm taught using "ß" right now in German lessons. So much for spelling reforms. Of course, I do actually write "ss" because I really can't be bothered to learn a new way to write "B"

And Im dropping German next year.. they teach it so badly at our school its unbelievable.

And to be ontopic, habby pirthday again. (I reallycant spell that properly anymore!)

[PrejudiceSucks]

A. J. Raffles, on Mar 26 2006, 07:14 AM, said:

Erm, yes, after the new spelling. But we've had so many spelling reforms that it's hard to tell how to spell anyway, so people tend to go with what feels more right. And 'daß' feels more right to me, because that's how I learnt it back in 1986.

I quite like 'ß' due to the way it looks, although I mainly use 'ss' because in some of our textbooks it has 'ß' all over the place and in the other it uses 'ss' more, and the one with 'ss' is newer.

Would using 'ss' instead of 'ß' count as a spelling error or not?

[A. J. Raffles]

PrejudiceSucks, on Mar 26 2006, 10:33 AM, said:

A. J. Raffles, on Mar 26 2006, 07:14 AM, said:

Erm, yes, after the new spelling. But we've had so many spelling reforms that it's hard to tell how to spell anyway, so people tend to go with what feels more right. And 'daß' feels more right to me, because that's how I learnt it back in 1986.

I quite like 'ß' due to the way it looks, although I mainly use 'ss' because in some of our textbooks it has 'ß' all over the place and in the other it uses 'ss' more, and the one with 'ss' is newer.

Would using 'ss' instead of 'ß' count as a spelling error or not?

Depends. Actually it's even more complicated than that, because now we use both 'ss' and 'ß'. The rule is that you use 'ß' after a long vowel. There also used to be a rule that you couldn't have 'ss' before a consonant or at the end of a word, but that rule was scrapped a few years ago (however, you can still have 'ß' at the end of a word if the preceding vowel is long, so you'd write 'der Fuß', but 'das Fass'). So strictly speaking, it's incorrect if you don't use 'ß' at all, but the good news is that Germans are far less fussy about correct spelling than they used to be twenty years ago.

By the way, did you know that the character 'ß' was originally based on a blend of the two different 's'-characters? It's a long s with a short s stuck on.

(Ahem, sorry, Daka, for turning this into a language thread. I'll try to behave from now on. )

[Tulac]

I thought sharpes s (dunno how to write on my keyboard), was completely replaced by ss, and considered archaic...

[PrejudiceSucks]

I don't think so, as people still use 'ß' in things like "es hat Spaß gemacht" or whatever.

Or they're supposed to.

And it's Alt + 0223

[Tulac]

Yes but they don't spell straße anymore do they?

[PrejudiceSucks]

I use Strasse, but I'm a bit lazy about such things.

[Tulac]

Well I was talking about the German government and official grammar...

[PrejudiceSucks]

Then it's Straße, I believe.

[A. J. Raffles]

Tulac, on Mar 26 2006, 12:16 PM, said:

Yes but they don't spell straße anymore do they?

The 'a' is long (as in 'lark'), so the 'ß' remains unchanged.

[Moogle]

DannyMc252, on Mar 26 2006, 09:15 AM, said:

A. J. Raffles, on Mar 26 2006, 07:14 AM, said:

Erm, yes, after the new spelling. But we've had so many spelling reforms that it's hard to tell how to spell anyway, so people tend to go with what feels more right. And 'daß' feels more right to me, because that's how I learnt it back in 1986.

I'm taught using "ß" right now in German lessons. So much for spelling reforms. Of course, I do actually write "ss" because I really can't be bothered to learn a new way to write "B"

And Im dropping German next year.. they teach it so badly at our school its unbelievable.

And to be ontopic, habby pirthday again. (I reallycant spell that properly anymore!)

They teach us bolth ways at my school...

[DannyMc252]

You learn German in CA? Im assuming higher education..
*checks birthday*
Huh? Didnt know americans even learnt foreign languages.