| @ AaronW: That's not true. Yes, the Germans did reform their spelling in 1996 and got rid of a lot of instances of the letter ß, but it still remains in the German word for "white," which is still spelled "weiß." What they did, was get rid of the letter ß after short vowels, such as in the word "Imbißstube," which is now spelled "Imbissstube." The reason they did this is because typically (though there always is an Ausnahme) a long vowel in German is followed by a single consonant, and a short vowel is followed by a double consonant. Example "Fass" is a short vowel, while "Maß" is a long vowel.
Sorry, I know that explanation was totally overkill, but I really miss speaking/learning German all the time! No disrespect intended at all. |
Chat Acronyms (Obscure)
German: Top 25 Verbs
Babelfish Videogames II
