How do I stop my ß from looking like my B?

Question

I'm learning German and ß is a common symbol that they use. Whenever I write it however, it is indistinguishable from my capital B. Any tips?

Answer 1

If you look at facsimile reproductions of old documents written in English, you will see that we used to write 's' like the left-hand part of the es-zett (or beta-s as we often call it in English) when it occurred inside a word, and the modern 's' was reserved for the initial and final positions. And double 's' was written just like es-zett, which is nothing more than a modern survival of that old manuscript convention.

Take a look at the American Declaration of Independence for example (you should be able to find a facsimile on the internet), and try to imitate the way Jefferson wrote 's' for the left-hand part. The secret is curling it round, particularly at the top. Then join an 's' to it on the right, but twist that 's' on the right a tad anticlockwise so it leans to the left.

Answer 2

Make the straight line on the left go down as far as it would if you were writing "p" or "q" or "y".  

Answer 3

A couple of ideas:

1. Don't connect the vertical part on the left with the end of the horizontal near the bottom

2. The top of the letter ß would be round whereas in B you'd see an angle in the upper left corner.

Answer 4

I write it by first making an f, but without the bar, and then an s joined onto it.

Answer 5

Well the handwritten one looks different than the one you have on your keyboard, so it shouldn't be too hard to differ it! Because the handwritten one has a little thing (sorry, I don't know the English word for it) at the left side of the letter.

Take a look at the second ß:

http://www.altearmee.de/eszett.GIF

That's definitely no B! ;-)

°°°

Oh God ... I hope in the end you don't forget what you wanted to write! *gg*