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A little more than 100 years ago on June 18th, 1901 a German spelling
reform was formulated and and immediately introduced in the new
school year.
When again in 1998 a further spelling reform
should become effective, there were many protests
and Germany split in at least three parties: Those which welcomed
the reform, those, which declined it and others, which claimed
to have modified it.
Also there were many media and publishing
houses starting to make use of grammatical rules
they liked best. Finally, a complete chaos, also because other
German speaking countries, like Switzerland and Austria, had their
own opinion.
The quarrel and several improvements finally
lasted for eight years until the new German spelling
got obligatory and accepted finally on August 1st,
2006, again.
Here are the
10 most important rules
for the new spelling which is now in effect.
(Note: examples are given in green)
- ss – ß: ß is
used only after a long vowel or dipthong.: Maß,
schließen,
reißen,
draußen
... After a short vowel always use ss
instead of ß:
messen,
Schloss,
gerissen,
Riss,
küsst
...
- Letters are
no longer omitted when words are combined together: Kaffeeernte,
Rohheit,
Schifffahrt,
schnelllebig
... (only exceptions: dennoch,
Drittel,
Hoheit,
Mittag)
- Stamm- bzw.
Parallelschreibung: Bändel,
Gräuel,
schnäuzen,
Stängel,
Stuckateur,
Ass,
nummerieren,
Platzierung,
Tipp ... Plural
after -ys: Babys ...,
also rau and Känguru.
- Optional assimilation
of a few foreign words Delfin,
words with phon, phot, graph: Mikrofon,
Geografie, words
with th: only Panter and
Tunfisch,
also Katarr,
Differenzial,
Jogurt,
Spagetti, Schikoree,
Portmonee ...
- When are words written
separately and when are they joined
- Separate
words a) verb + verb can always be written
separately: lieben_lernen,
spazieren_gehen, gefangen_gehalten, getrennt_lebend … (When
a meaning is carried over, it is also possible
to join the words together: sitzenbleiben,
kennenlernen …)
- Noun + Verb: Acht
geben, Rad fahren ...
(not with "faded" nouns like preisgeben,
eislaufen, stattfinden, teilnehmen
...)
- Adverb +
Verb: always with ‘sein’ and
written separately:
da sein, zusammen
sein ..., also: allein erziehen, zustande
bringen ... (when combined with a
participle it can be written either way: allgemein
bildend or allgemeinbildend).
- Adverb + Adjective/Adverb: allgemein_verständlich,
wie viel, zu viel, so lange … (unless
a conjunction is present: Solange
du fern bist, …).
- Joining
words together compulsory only with irgendetwas,
irgendjemand, umso (desto), zurzeit
(derzeit)
- Words written
separately or joined together with adjective
+ verb: separate if literal
meaning (klein
schreiben) or joined if meaning
is carried over: (kleinschreiben).
- Using a hyphen
with numbers: 8-mal,
20-jährig
... (but not with suffixes "~er", "~ig", "~tel":
30er Jahre, 100%ig,
12tel ...) but also 3-fach.
- Use of small letters
- 2nd person
salutation pronouns may be written
with a capital letter - however only in letters:
du, ihr, dein,
euer
... or. Du, Ihr ….
- Firm connection
between adjective and noun: das
autogene Training, das neue Jahr ...
(unless with proper names:
die Dritte
Welt ...); However: you may use
capital letters if there is a new idiomatic
meaning: das
Schwarze Brett, der Blaue Brief … and
in technical language: der
Goldene Schnitt, Erste Hilfe …
- Adjectives
formed by proper names before (i)sch: die
grimmschen
Märchen ... (Capitalization
only to emphasize the name with an apostrophe:
die Grimm'schen
Märchen ...)
- Capitalization
- Times of
day after 'gestern',
'heute',
'morgen': gestern
Abend ...
- Nouns when
words are separated: in
Bezug
auf, Schuld
haben ... (except recht/schuld
sein ...). With Recht/recht and Unrecht/unrecht both
are acceptable in conjunction with verbs.
- Using a verb
to form a noun, especially after articles: der
Einzelne, als Erster, das Gleiche, des Weiteren,
im Allgemeinen ...
After prepositions (without
an article) either is possible: seit k/Kurzem,
ohne w/Weiteres ...
Nouns with no inflection
will be capitalized after prepositions: auf
Deutsch, in Schwarz, für Groß und
Klein ...
- Pairs will
be capitalized too: Jung
und Alt,
Groß und
Klein ...
- Using a comma:
A comma DON'T HAVE TO be used
- in sequences
of clauses 'und' or 'oder': Er
studiert noch und sie
ist arbeitslos. ...
- if infinitives
are used in conjunction with a participle: Ich
hoffe dir eine Freude zu bereiten. Zu Hause
angekommen legte er sich hin. ...
A comma MUST be used
- if
supplementary words are used with a conjunction
of an infinitive and a participle: Ein
Auto zu kaufen, das ist
schwer. Ich liebe es,
Sport zu treiben. ...
- if there
dependence on a noun exists: Er
hat den Wunsch, Arzt zu werden. …
- with an infinitive
with "zu": um,
ohne, statt, anstatt, außer, als zu
When using
direct speech, a comma must be used before
the explanatory sentence after ?" und !": "Hilf
mir doch!", bat
er. ...
- Separating words
after phonetic syllables:
- also with
s-t: Fens-ter
- ck like ch: Bä-cker
- single
vowels only in a word: Ru-i-ne, not at the
beginning: ü-ber
and at the end: Treu-e
- also not in the
joint of a word, so only: Sonn-abend,
Bio-top hi-naus, wa-rum, Pä-dagogik is also
possible ...
(Source: translation from the rules published
at www.neue-rechtschreibung.de (in
German only)
You also find detailed rules and comments:
Do you know further interesting pages about the spelling reform?
Please write to: info@learn-german-online.net |
