Questions tagged [eszett]

relating to the letter ß

The character ß evolved as a ligature of ‘long s and z’ (ſz) or ‘long s over round s’ (ſs). According to current official German orthography rules, the character ß is considered an individual letter.

The letter ß is unique in that it has no traditional upper case form. When using all-caps, current spelling rules require the replacement of ß with SS.

In Switzerland, ss usually replaces every ß. This is accepted by the current official German orthography rules.

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Dropping ß entirely

I'm learning German and was wondering if I could completely drop ß (Eszett) and replace it with ss in all instances where ß is used. I know that the Swiss don't use ß. Is this practical? Can this become a problem when communicating with Germans?
Vahid Amiri
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ss but not sz for eszett

If I'm not mistaken, ss is an alternative to ß. Why is sz not an alternative? The ß seems to be nothing but an antiqua-like representation of the sz-ligature in Fraktur, and so one should expect the alternative to be sz.
Toothrot
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How to type the ß and capital ß (ẞ) on a Windows 8 German keyboard?

I just started learning German through DW online courses. I can not find how to type the ß and capital ß (ẞ) on the German keyboard of Windows 8.
Kareem Ergawy
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