You'll find the ß only in Germany and Austria so if you are living in Switzerland you don't have to bother with the esszett as they got rid of it many years ago. It's not always easy to know when to write e.g. ß and when s or ss but don't worry too much about that for now. You'll pick that up easily with this course.

Video Summary

• The video discusses a German linguistic peculiarity related to the letter "ß."
• They present a riddle to French friends, involving various interpretations of the character "ß."
• "ß" resembles a snake and is unique to the German language.
• In the past, there were two forms of "s" in German, and "ß" emerged as a ligature of "s" and "z."
• The video mentions the Gebrüder Grimm's explanation of "ß" as a combination of "s" and "z."
• "ß" has no capital letter counterpart, often replaced by "ss" in headlines.
• Liechtenstein and Switzerland have removed "ß" from their writing systems.
• The video discusses the complexities of the new German spelling reform regarding "ß."
• The video encourages enjoying the uniqueness of "ß" while it still exists