Capitalization of “Recht”/“Unrecht” in “Du hast Recht/Unrecht”

Question

I think I’ve seen Recht/Unrecht both being capitalized and not capitalized:

(a) Du hast Recht.

(b) Du hast recht.

(c) Du hast Unrecht.

(d) Du hast unrecht.

The non-capitalized version doesn’t seem to be supported by the dictionary. Is it actually correct or not?

http://www.korrekturen.de/kurz_erklaert/recht_haben_oder_recht_haben.shtml — Em1, Oct 01 '14 at 07:41

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 05 '15 at 11:15

6

All four versions are correct. However the lower case ones are recommended by the Duden so you’d probably rather go with them.

Sources:

http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/recht_haben

http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Unrecht

edited Oct 05 '15 at 11:15

Jan

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answered Oct 01 '14 at 02:23

It is quite illogical to use "recht" in lowercase in "Recht haben". It is obviously a noun there (eg Recht haben, Angst haben, Spaß haben) and nouns should be written in uppercase. – Alan Evangelista Jun 19 '19 at 10:25

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 05 '15 at 11:16

2

The only correct pre-reform spelling was lowercase. This is still considered correct (recommended, even), although you may also capitalize Recht now. Duden has more: http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/recht

edited Oct 05 '15 at 11:16

Jan

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answered Oct 01 '14 at 03:00

Ingmar

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"recht und Ordnung" !? Absolut nicht. Recht als Nomen wurde immer groß geschrieben. – jawo Oct 01 '14 at 07:48
Ja, natürrlich. Es geht nur um "recht haben" udgl. – Ingmar Oct 01 '14 at 08:13
Dann solltest du vielleicht spezifizieren, dass du dich auf recht als Adjektiv beziehst. Ansonsten ist "The only correct..." nämlich falsch. – jawo Oct 01 '14 at 08:22
2

Nichts für ungut, aber das Ausgangsbeispiel war "Du hast Recht". Dafür gilt das Gesagte uneingeschränkt. – Ingmar Oct 01 '14 at 08:29

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 05 '15 at 11:23

Even if all forms are correct, I prefer the uppercase.

Due Recht is mostly used as a noun.

Mit deiner Handlung bist du im Recht.

Literally means, that your behavior fits to the law. Law is an object and therefore written uppercase in habit.

But there are also usages of Recht in which it is not used as a subject or object and lowercase is more adequate.

„Was hältst du von Pizza heute Abend?“
„Ja, das ist mir recht“

Person2 agrees to Person1s suggestion. recht is an adjective here which represent the state of Person2s opinion to the suggestion.

If you don’t know if to write something upper- or lowercase, always question if the word is a subject/object. If that, it’s always written uppercase.

But pay attention, we got a saying here in Germany:

Die wichtigste Regel der deutschen Sprache ist die, dass es immer Ausnahmen gibt.
(The most basic rule in German is, that there are always exceptions.)

Capitalization of “Recht”/“Unrecht” in “Du hast Recht/Unrecht”

3 Answers3