Script guide › Latin
How to recognize German
German is one of 35 languages in Grafle's Latin group. Here's what it looks like, where you'll see it on signs, and how to tell it apart from its lookalikes.
Spot it fast
- Nouns are Capitalized mid-sentence — unique to German.
- Umlauts ä ö ü plus the sharp ß, and long compound words. (Switzerland writes ss instead of ß.)
What German looks like
Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich an Würde geboren.
Schöne Grüße aus Österreich!
Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm.
Latin scripts: The alphabet you're reading now. Each language gives itself away by its own special letters and accent marks.
Where you'll see it on signs
- Germany
- Austria
- Switzerland
- Liechtenstein
- Luxembourg
Easy to confuse with
- Dutch — German Capitalizes Every Noun and writes umlauts and ß; Dutch runs on the ij pair (vrij, gelijk, tijd).
- Afrikaans — German Capitalizes Every Noun and uses ä/ö/ü/ß; Afrikaans does neither — and its standalone 'n is unique.