Spelling
New and old spelling
German spelling has been reformed. A German student can find the same word written in two different ways.
- Capital letters and small letters
The following words are written with a capital letter:
Nouns
Words used as nouns: im Allgemeinen / in Bezug auf
Colours preceded by the prepositions "in", "bei", "auf" all begin with a capital letter
Er ging bei Rot über die Strasse.
Morgen kleide ich mich ganz in Grün.
Hours of the day which are combined with "vorgestern", "gestern", "heute", "morgen", "übermorgen".
gestern Mittag / morgen Abend
(*) In combination with specific days, the hours of the day are written as compound words: Freitagnachmittag / Ostersonntag
Languages:
Deutsch / Spanisch / Englisch
Although adjectives are written with small letters, with fixed compound expressions which have an adjective and a noun, the adjective is written with a capital letter.
der Heilige Abend / der Zweite Weltkrieg
Superlatives are usually written with small letters.
das geringste / das nötigste
Personal pronouns du (you), ihr (you plural) are written with small letters, whilst the personal pronouns (‘you’ singular & plural formal forms) are always written with a capital letter.
Ich danke Ihnen.
Ich danke dir Ich weiss nicht, ob ihr eingeladen seid.
---------------- oooo O oooo ----------------
Exercises
Correct the mistakes in the following sentences.
(Click in the box to see the answers; double click to return to the original position)
