Latin Small Letter Sharp S

Use ß after a long vowel or diphthong before one s sound.

Maße (“measurements”) and Masse (“mass”) show why the choice matters: the first has a long vowel and the second a short one. You see the same spelling in words such as groß (“big”) and Kuss (“kiss”).

Who calls ß Eszett?

Both Eszett and scharfes S name the same letter. The names vary by region: Eszett is more common in central and northern German-speaking areas, while scharfes S is especially established in Austria, South Tyrol, Luxembourg, eastern Swiss German areas, and southern Germany.

Where did ß get its shape?

It grew from joined s-and-z or s-and-s letter forms. In late-medieval German manuscripts, the Fraktur form joined the long s (ſ), an old s shape used inside or at the start of a syllable, to a tailed z. In Antiqua (roman type), another form joined long s to round s. A ligature is two letters fused into one shape.

The Fraktur form came from medieval German spelling, where sz marked an unvoiced s sound and tz marked a “ts” sound. German spelling treated the two forms as the same letter by 1901.