The German spelling reform

What is the latest standard of German spelling rules?

How can spelling rules be adapted to changes in the
language? Can German spelling be simplified? And
should we have an obligatory set of spelling rules at all?
These and other questions have lead to heated
discussions in the field of German orthography over the
last decades. For more than 100 years, however, Germany has uniform spelling
rules, which have undergone many a changes...
At the second Conference of Orthography in 1901, a uniform set of German
spelling rules was established for the first time. From that point on, the influential
"Duden", a dictionary of the German language, has tremendously fostered the
development of German spelling rules in the course of the 20th century and still
serves as a standard.
In the second half of the 20th century, the standardisation of spelling rules was
still regarded as controversial, especially in the 1960s. Furthermore, specific
cases of doubt were discussed, as well as the question of possible
simplifications.
Eventually, in 1996, the set of German spelling rules was officially reformed. This
lead to numerous protests and to Germany splitting into three big factions:
Those who welcomed the reform, those who declined it, and others who wanted
it to be modified. Moreover, there were many media and publishing houses
beginning to use the grammatical rules they liked best instead of complying with
the new standards. Finally, German spelling was a complete chaos, also because
other German speaking countries, like Switzerland and Austria, had their own
opinions and practices.
In the end, it took eight years of quarrels and modifications until the new German
spelling became accepted and obligatory on August 1st, 2006. Here are the

The 10 most important new spelling rules of the German language:

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(Note: examples are given in green)

1. ss : is used only after a long vowel or diphthong.: Ma, schlieen,
reien, drauen ... After a short vowel always use ss instead of :
messen, Schloss, gerissen, Riss, ksst ...

2. Letters are no longer omitted in compound words: Kaffeeernte, Rohheit,

Schifffahrt, schnelllebig ... (exceptions: dennoch, Drittel, Hoheit,

Mittag)
3. Stamm- and Parallelschreibung: Bndel, Gruel, schnuzen, Stngel,

Stuckateur, Ass, nummerieren, Platzierung, Tipp ... Plural after -ys:

Babys ..., also rau and Knguru.
4. 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 ...
5. When are words written separately and when are they written in one
word?
verb + verb can always be written separately: lieben_lernen,
spazieren_gehen, gefangen_gehalten, getrennt_lebend (if a new
meaning evolves, words can also be written in one word: 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_verstndlich, wie viel, zu viel, so
lange (except of conjunctions: Solange du fern bist, ).
always written as compounds: irgendetwas, irgendjemand, umso (desto),
zurzeit (derzeit)
adjective + verb: separate if literal meaning (klein schreiben) or
combined if new meaning is carried over (kleinschreiben)
6. Use of hyphens with numbers: 8-mal, 20-jhrig ... (but not with suffixes
"~er", "~ig", "~tel": 30er Jahre, 100%ig, 12tel ...) but also 3-fach.
7. Use of small letters
the address in 2nd person can be written in capital letters - but only in

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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
Mrchen ... (capitalization with an apostrophe only to emphasize the
name: die Grimm'schen Mrchen ...)
8. Capitalization
names of daytimes 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 an adjective as 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 in the infinitive are capitalized after prepositions: auf Deutsch, in
Schwarz, fr Gro und Klein ...
word pairs are capitalized too: Jung und Alt, Gro und Klein ...
9. Use of commas:
A comma DOESN'T HAVE TO be used:
with the conjunctions 'und' or 'oder': Er studiert noch und sie ist
arbeitslos. ...
if infinitives are used in combination with a participle: Zu Hause
angekommen legte er sich hin. ...
A comma MUST be used
if there is a dependence on a noun: Er hat den Wunsch, Arzt zu
werden.
with an infinitive with "zu": um, ohne, statt, anstatt, auer, als zu
10. Separation of words after phonetic syllables:
s-t: Fens-ter

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ck like ch: B-cker (instead of Bk-ker)

single vowels only in medial position of a word: Ru-i-ne, not at the
beginning: -ber and at the end: Treu-e
not in compound words: Sonn-abend, Bio-top hi-naus, wa-rum, Pdagogik is also possible ...
(Source: translation of the rules published at www.neue-rechtschreibung.de)
You also find detailed rules and comments:
Rechtschreibreform - Einfhrung und Umsetzung der neuen Regeln
as pdf download from Hubert Burda Media
Deutscher Bildungsserver: Information on the new German spelling rules
Institut fr Deutsche Sprache: Documents about the content of the spelling
reform: Revised set of rules (setting 2006)
Recognize sense and nonsense yourself - still demanded by the initiators of
www.rechtschreibreform.com.
Wikipedia.org offers explanations in German
and in English
.
Generally, the free encyclopedia Wikipedia also informs about orthography in
many languages
Business Knigge

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Do you know further interesting pages about the spelling reform?

Please write to: info@learn-german-online.net

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