The Unique Characters of German
The German alphabet contains the standard 26 Latin letters plus three vowels with Umlauts (ä, ö, ü) and one special consonant, the Eszett (ß).
What is the Eszett (ß)?
The character ß, also known as the "sharp S" or "sz," is a ligature unique to the German language. It is pronounced like a sharp 's' (like in "hiss").
- Usage: It is used after long vowels and diphthongs (e.g., Straße - street). After short vowels, a double 'ss' is used instead (e.g., Fluss - river).
- Capitalization: For centuries, 'ß' never appeared at the start of a word, so it had no uppercase form. However, in 2017, the Capital Eszett (ẞ) was officially adopted for use in all-caps writing (e.g., STRAẞE).
German Quotation Marks
German uses a distinct style of quotation marks often described as "99-66". The opening quote is placed at the bottom („), and the closing quote is at the top (“). In books, you may also see guillemets pointing inwards (»like this«), which is the opposite of French style.