German texts riddled with Ae, oe, ue, Ue, ae and Oe carry a message – namely that their authors are not using a German computer keyboard. Though replacing ö with oe, for instance, is correct when conveying the meaning of a certain word, it is a sloppy way of doing so.
Umlaut Versus Transcription
Especially when writing to someone in Germany or in German, the extra trouble of inserting the correct umlaut will go a long way. It shows the recipient of the message or letter that the author has
- a good command over the language,
- an eye for detail and
- an understanding of the importance of the correct umlaut.
Granted, when writing a casual email to a friend or family member, demonstrating one’s command over the language is surely not the first objective. However, when applying for a job that requires German language skills or any formal written communication in German, for that matter, minding one’s Ös and Äs is key.
The Special Letter ß
This is also true for the special consonant ß, a letter unique to the German alphabet. Replacing ß with ss can change the meaning of the word. Maße, for example, is the plural of Maß (measurement), whereas Masse means mass, the weight of a body in a gravitational field. This example also shows that ‘ß’ stretches the vowel preceding it (the “a” in Maße is long) while ‘ss’ shortens it (the “a” in Masse is short).
The following shortcut keys work well for PCs:
- ä = 00e4 + Alt + x
- Ä = 00c4 + Alt + x
- ö = 00f6 + Alt + x
- Ö = 00d6 + Alt + x
- ü = 00fc + Alt + x
- Ü = 00dc + Alt + x
- ß = 00df + Alt + x
Special German Characters and the Internet
In global settings, like the Internet for instance, URLs and email addresses with special characters would not work. Here, they need to be transcribed by the correct equivalent: ae for ä, oe for ö, ue for ü and the same for the capital umlaute (“umlaute” is the correct German plural, however, “umlauts” is prevalent as the popular anglicized version).
A word of caution: Umlaute should never be replaced simply by the vowels without the diacritical marks (the two dots on top), for example ä with a. These are two different vowels and exchanging them will change the meaning of a word. The German “Hand” (hand), for example, changes in plural to “Hände” (hands), which is correctly conveyed by “Haende” but not by “Hande,” which has no meaning.
Find out more about the history and usage of German umlauts. How about learning about popular German first names and their pronunciation?
