The umlaut

There are a couple of special characters German uses that can be a little confusing. This is the umlaut, the "two dots" above certain letters. But all it is is an E.

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[rvsconeumann]

To the last one: You shouldn´t replace the ß in this sentence:
"Wenn ich Alkohol trinke, dann in Maßen."
(When I drink Alcohol, than not very much.)

Because that would have the following sentence as result:
"Wenn ich Alkohol trinke, dann in Massen."
(When I drink Alcohol, than masses of it.)

Thats a big different  :D

[rewboss]

Okay, what can I say about this one? I think I've found the right sort of camera angle here.

It's taken a year, when we moved to this place, for me to find a good background, and I think I've hit on it. I have this window next to my desk which looks out into open country, but I always had the camera head-on, so you could never see out of the window. By moving the camera sideways, I am now suddenly able to give you what should be a fascinating view, as you notice the change of the seasons. I don't know why I didn't hit on this idea before, but I'm pleased with it.

[LawnMeower]

many keyboard layouts contain the ¨ (trema).
idk about the us-American keyboard, but many other keyboards have it (pressing shift + 6 or something). the trema (¨) is set as a dead key.

the grand german language had one more umlaut. the ÿ/Ÿ. it was used in words like frÿ, mÿse(?). nowadays we use an ei instead.

[rewboss]

Ein Zeichen ist, zumindest technisch gesehen, nur dann ein Buchstabe, wenn es einen festen Platz im Alphabet hat. Zum Beispiel, in der schwedischen Sprache ist das Ä ein Buchstabe, und zwar der 28. In der deutschen Sprache aber ist das Ä kein Buchstabe für sich, sondern ein A mit Umlaut.

Wenn sich das Versal-ẞ durchsetzt und es den 27. Platz im Alphabet belegt, ist es ein Buchstabe. Bis dahin ist es ein Zeichen, aber kein Buchstabe.

[panzwes]

Thank you for posting this - I've been having trouble pronouncing words with umlauts, and this is a helpful tip!

I've recently discovered your channel, and have enjoyed the informative and funny videos.

[GerdEichler]

A famous example: after Mr. Wilhelm Eduard Böing emigrated to the US he changed his name to William Edward Boeing

[MegaJJ]

I am close to be feeling shocked.
The Umlaut thing is a huge obstacle for many people trying to learn German. It was for my American ex-wife.
In your vid, you focused on the spelling. All cool.
With all my highest respects to all your really kick ass and on spot vids:
I‘d like to ask for another vid considering the damn Umlauts.
Maybe I just missed a vid you already posted.
If not, feel free to contact me.
I remember the best joke between my American wife and me was to pronounce „55“. Good times.

[rewboss]

You can actually set the computer keyboard to any layout you want, in your systems settings (at least, you can on Windows and Chrome; I presume the same holds true for Mac). But that's only any good if you can touch-type on that layout, unless you want to put stickers on some of your keys.

[rewboss]

Menſch, ſo viel Aufregung wegen eines einzigen Zeichens... hätte ich gewuſſt, daſs es ſolche Gefühle ausloſen würde, hätte ich es nie erwähnt. Wir könnten uns Stunden lang über Buchſtaben, Ligaturen und Digraphe unterhalten, aber ſchließlich ſind das alles Schriftzeichen, mehr nicht.

[Cheers]

It feels nice to have an umlaut in my name

[gwaur]

In Finnish, ä and ö represent independent, phonemic vowels, so replacing them with ae and oe would be wrong and they'd be pronounced completely differently.

[rewboss]

Well, whether they count as "umlauts" depends on your definition of "umlaut" -- there are several. Linguistics can sometimes be a very inexact science.

[deformedmouse]

On a mobile keyboard, you can hold the letters to get the letter with aumlauts.
The ß is by holding down s. Olny works on mobile

[ThamiorSilberdrache]

Of course it is. Open Office just opens the code page of your font, so if your font supports 'Umlaute' (wich most fonts do), you can insert those with the 'Special Character'- or 'Symbol'-feature or with the ASCII-Code in any Texteditor that is able to use this font. It's not at all a special feature of Open Office. To use an ASCII-Code, simply keep 'Alt' pressed while entering the code on the numeric keypad. Here are some Codes: ä = 132, ö = 148, ü = 129, Ä = 142, Ö = 153, Ü = 154 and ß = 225.

[rewboss]

Yep, "Umlaute" is the plural. Although it shouldn't be pronounced "oom-lau-TAY" -- that's an American idea of what French words are supposed to sound like. It's pronounced "OOM-lau-tuh".

[larryf]

Umlaut refers to the sound, actually not the symbol (diarasis) which exists in other languages. The English foot/feet, goose/geese is actually an umlaut, although we don't call it that.

[EvanC]

When will you make a video on ß (Eszett/scharfes S)?

[amiausUSA]

The ß esszet letter is not used in Switzerland, except in imported media from Germany and Austria. Also I never saw it used in Liechtenstein either.

[johncrwarner]

In English - the old forms the e was moved after the following consonant and is now commonly (thank you Sesame Street) as the magic "e"
cub -> cube
etc.

[worldhello]

@0:54 You can use an ISO profile and touch type. :)