German Sharp s

The German sharp s is a letter that is found in no other language. The character for the letter is ẞ. It is used after long vowels and diphthongs. However, is it not used in Swiss German because Swiss German uses ss.

Here are ten German words with the letter:

drauẞen (outside)

dreiẞig (thirty)

Fuẞ (foot)

groẞ (big)

Gruẞ (greeting)

heiẞ (hot)

Spaẞ (fun)

Straẞe (street)

süẞ (sweet)

weiẞ (white)

Since the sharp s is not used in Switzerland, it is replaced with ss. The result is that words such as foot and white are spelt Fuss and weiss. German is the only language which has the sharp s. It can occur in the middle and end of words but never at the beginning.