I see people discussing Neue Rechtschreibung versus Alte Rechtschreibung. What is the difference? What has changed in German orthography since the 1996 Rechtschreibreform?
1 Answer
This is an overview of changes to German orthography since the 1996 reform and subsequent additions in 2004. It's not meant to reflect the letter of the reform, but give a practical overview for everyday usage.
Eszett before long vowels
Eszett, ß now only follows long vowels and diphthongs. This Change has increased consistency and added some derivability to previously unclear cases.
Kuss, Verdruss, Beschluss
Saß, Spaß, Grüßen
- Is there a rule that dictates whether to use the eszett (scharfes S) or double s?
- Article ß in the English Wikipedia: Current usage in German
Triple-consonants in word concatenation
In combining words that yield a triple-letter, one of those consonants would have been dropped, if the next letter was a vowel (Schiff and Fahrt yielded Schiffahrt; Sauerstoff and Flasche yielded Sauerstoffflasche). After the reform, consonants are never dropped:
Schiff + Fahrt → Schifffahrt
Kaffee + Ernte → Kaffeeernte
- Article German orthography in the English Wikipedia: Double or triple consonants
Common gallicisms may have Germanic spelling
Some commonly used French idioms, or load words, have been adapted in German spelling. The new spelling is optional and only concerns a select set of words. Specifically, the endings é and ée can now be written as ee:
Dekolletee (fr., alt.: Dekolleté)
Exposee (fr., alt.: Exposé)
The Duden usually provides the ee variant as an alternative spelling - so it is safe to always use the French spelling. (Dekolleté, Exposé). Again: the French spelling is recommended.
As an ending, ph becomes f in every case
Using f instead of ph has long been possible. Die Rechtschreibreform now recommends f in all cases:
Paragraf, Fotograf, Tachograf
Note that Photograph is still legal (though Fotograph would be considered inelegant).
English nouns ending in y are pluralised by adding an s
Where before you could write either Parties or Partys, the latter spelling is now mandatory:
Partys, Rowdys, Babys, Buggys
Some words ending in –tial and –tiell are now spelled with a z
This is the case, when there exists a related word ending in z:
Differenzial (formerly: Differential; related: Differenz)
Potenziell (formerly: Potentiell; related: Potenz)
The word martialisch (violently cruel), for example, still has a t because there is no word-stem ending in z.
Composite Words
In forming a composite verb from an infinitive (non inflected) verb + verb, they are now no longer spelled together:
spazierengehen → spazieren gehen
However, the verbs bleiben and lassen are exceptions to this rule, as in stehenbleiben.
The same applies to:
Noun + Verb (now: Auto fahren, Rad fahren [form. radfahren], Haus bauen)
Verb + sein (beisammen sein, dabei sein)
However: Composites using irgend– are spelled together:
Irgendjemand, Irgendetwas
Hyphenation
Previously, very long words could be hyphenated if they consisted of more than three parts. This is now allowed, though not mandatory, for words with three parts or less:
Bundes-Finanzminister (also: Bundesfinanzminister)
Hyphenation is now mandatory if part of the word is a proper number:
Die 80-jährigen, der 12-Zylinder
- Article Bindestrich in the German Wikipedia: RechtschreibregelnIt is now allowed to hyphenate loan-words to improve their readability:
Car-Sharing (en.: car clubs; most often spelled Carsharing)
Black-out (also: Blackout, en.: Blackout)
Rendez-vous (uncommon; corr: Rendezvous, also: Rendez Vous, fr.: rendez-vous)
Personal pronouns
The informal personal pronouns du and ihr need no longer be capitalised:
Wie geht es dir?
- Is it still good form to use a capital D for Du or Dir in a written letter?
Adjectives formed from names of persons
Previously, these used to be capitalised - they no longer are:
Das mooresche Gesetz
Die drei keplerschen Gesetze
Time of day
Prior to the adverbs vorgestern, gestern, heute, morgen and übermorgen, the time of day is capitalised:
Gestern Abend
Morgen Nachmittag
Composite nouns from adjectives
In forming a composite noun, spelled separately, the adjective is no longer capitalised:
der rote Faden (previously: der Rote Faden)
But note that proper nouns are still capitalised:
der Große Duden
die Kleine Anfrage (German radio programme)
Word-pair formulæ describing persons
If a word-pair, such as Arm und Reich, Jung und Alt, describes persons, both adjectives are capitalised, even without an article :
Großartige Angebote für Alt und Jung (previously: alt und jung)
Die Letzten werden die Ersten sein (no change, as there is an article)
When to use a comma
It is now legitimate to place a comma in a composite sentence, if it uses the words und or mit:
Der Hund, mit dem er unterwegs war
Du gehst weg, und ich bleibe hier.
This is a device to aid in clarification, the form without a comma is still allowed
In Infinitive groups (Infinitivgruppen), there are now only three cases in which a comma need be set:
When using the words anstatt, um, ausser, and ohne in the dependence clause
Ich laufe, um fit zu werden
If the dependence clause references a noun in the independent clause
Die Dinge, die* ich benötige (*: die stands in place of Dinge)
If the infinitive group is announced or referenced
Ich bin dabei*, meinen Schreibtisch aufzuräumen (*: wobei?)
- What are the differences in punctuation between German and English?
Splitting words at the end of a line
Words can now be split at st. The old mnemnonic: „Trenne nie ‚st‘, denn es tut ihm weh“ no longer holds.
Las-ter, Ras-ter, Pflas-ter (as before with sp, sk, and pf)
The opposite is true for ck. Here, one previously had to solve the ck to k-k, as in Ak-ker or Hok-ker. Ck is now moved to the next line:
Zu-cker
Ha-cken
Load-words containing consonants previous to l, m, n, and r are now split after the consontant
Mag-ne-te
Optionally, words that were composites but are now recognised as single entities can be split according to their pronunciation
He-li-ko-pter becomes He-li-kop-ter
Sources:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechtschreibreform
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_der_deutschen_Rechtschreibung_von_1996
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindestrich#Bindestrich
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthographische_Konferenz_von_1901
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebensatz
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschichte_der_deutschen_Rechtschreibung
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphthong
http://deutschblog.pons.eu/themen/fachliches/
http://www.duden.de/sprachwissen/sprachratgeber/crashkurs--in-25-schritten-zur-neuen-rechtschreibung
http://www.duden.de/sprachwissen/sprachratgeber/intonation-des-deutschen
Zusammen oder getrennt? Gibt es eine Regel?
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindestrich#Rechtschreibregeln
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_Gallizismen
Is it still good form to use a capital D for Du or Dir in a letter?
What are the differences in punctuation between German and English?
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worttrennung
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3Nice work, this is definitely needed! It might make a nice Tag Wiki as well? For
reformed-ortography
?– PekkaMay 29, 2011 at 7:43 -
I vaguely remember a whole slew of other punctuation rules which didn’t make immediate sense to me (read: none at all) when we learned them in school. In fact, our teacher pretty much gave up and told us to use the old rules. These new rules were also routinely used to mock the new orthography and show its ambiguities. – Since these rules are missing here: have they been removed from subsequent revisions of the reform? In particular, the „um … zu“ rule that you mentioned was missing from the original reform, leading to a lot of confusion. May 29, 2011 at 12:40
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1This is a nice answer! Don't apologize because it's long! I didn't read it all yet, I'll put this question in my favorites. :) +1 to answer and question from me.– AlenannoFeb 2, 2012 at 10:27
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1Tried to vote +1 for effort and another +1 for the citations. Wouldn't work, though. Sep 5, 2012 at 10:15