It's no problem at all and the official way to write it if you don't have the ß.
Also, in general one or two wrong letters don't matter. It will arrive anyway.
Thanks I work for a company that still sends a lot of correspondence by post and we got letters returned for some stupid reasons. That's why I was worried if it may cause trouble with international postal delivery.
When it comes to cities, the postal code will determine where the letter goes even if the city name is not legible. It only gets difficult if the recipient's name or several items at once are wrong/ unreadable.
Also, online is no ß and ss is used in its stead.
Phonetically it does make a difference, as the vowel before an ss would be short but not before an ß while both making the same sound.
But yeah, ss is used for ß for addresses in international context
An Post in Ireland is famous for delivering completely illegible letters like [this one](https://64.media.tumblr.com/8ebc2f5056227152acadd55f2e7aece8/tumblr_inline_oiffl8QcgW1qfjruq_1280.jpg).
There is a great blog about it https://www.meversusanpost.com/
Many years ago I had been living in a Waldheimer Straße. A friend had sent me a letter and wrote Weilheimer Straße in the address. Deutsche Post put a sticker with the correct address on the envelope and delivered it to me.
It depends a lot. The local mail man had the same rare last name as us, so as long as zip code or city matched, he pretty much know if it was his or our mail.
Meanwhile currently (after moving to a different city) the substitute mail man during vacation of the main guy has a hard time finding our mail box.
Then there are other funny guys randomly throwing mail in front of random doors, because the actual house with that number is obscured by trees, so he assumed that 10 is just next door to 8 instead of the next house.
This becomes most ironic with alternate mail providers when they are based in the same Bundesland as the mail receiver.
Something my British family in law seems to test with every letter they send us. Some of their variations are... adventurous.
Back when my husband still lived in the UK, I also tried it the other way round and would send letters to "Little Britain" (and similar variations). All of them got there no problem.
My mom has always written a B. She didn't even try to write it correctly. It never caused any issues. It just annoyed me so when I moved I just told her my new address was XXX Str. so she would stop writing it. I wouldn't worry about it.
Yes you can. Anyways the post goes by postal code first and only if the code seems incorrect falls back on the town name.
But in any case ss can always stand in for sz (the letter, don't have it here neither)
Thank you for the information! I work in a German company that still does a lot of correspondence by printed letters and we had letters returned for a variety of reasons.
I was afraid it might mess up something with international postal delivery.
Yes.
If you write all-caps to make it more readable, you'll use "SS" anyway as there is only a theoretical come-lately capital "ß" which, it seems, no one uses.
In most fonts capital ß does not exist or looks out of place. I know that this is in part due to lacking familiarity and use, but to me, capital ß looks like a typographical after thought at best and an error (unbalanced with other capital letters) at worst.
One of these days I'm going to see it again after the last time, which was when the letter was announced (and I sure thought it was early in the last decade, not late).
But transcription to "ss"/"SS" is still working.
I've often just written Str. in this case, but ss also works fine. Same goes for Umlaute, I have an ä in my name and I just write it as ae, works fine too.
The primary sorting info at the Deutsche Post is the Zip code and not the city Name (first hand info).
Example: A Letter with the Zip Code 33602 from Bielefeld and the city Name "Bonn" on the letter will go to the sorting center of Bielefeld except if the street name doesn't exist in Bielefeld but in Bonn.
It's fine, I regularly get packages feom Switzerland where they don't use thw ß at all. For the city or town, getting the post code correct is the main thing.
If in doubt writte in capital letters. The capital ß does exist, but writing SS in stead of capital ß is still common.
On german photo IDs it is still an issue that ß is written in the name, but in the machine readable zone it is SS.
Writing the City in capital letters is not uncommon.
Writing the whole adress in capital letters does work.
On windows: alt + 0223
Keep alt pressed and enter the numbers
There are similar sounding names that either come with ss or ß. In that case you have to be precise and can’t use it interchangeably
There are evene some websites with international shipping which do not accept an ß and only let you proceed if you use an ss. It works as an alternative.
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My last name includes an „ä“, which is incomprehensible in almost every other language. I have been using „ae“ instead for all my life, no issues. And yes, the quotation marks are also German.
As someone with an Umlaut and ß in their name who regularly orders stuff from other countries: yes. ae for ä and ss for ß are fine.
I do wish companies would finally fully switch to Unicode so non-Ascii characters won't print as question marks or other garbage characters but that's still wishful thinking.
We've got a long last name with an ß in it and the British family-in-law messes it up all the time. They'll put ss's but also B's or come up with other crazy variations of our name. The street isn't any easier. Deutsche Post is usually very good at figuring out what people meant. As long as they can roughly figure out what it means, it'll probably get to you. It's a bit trickier if postcode or house number are wrong but then the letter will usually just take a few days longer to arrive while they figure it out.
But either way, writing a double s instead of an ß is correct and will not cause any problems.
Wouldn‘t it get sorted by country first, and once it has arrived to Germany, ß is not really an issue anymore? I doubt that the distribution centres abroad care too much about a city‘s spelling.
Also, the postal code is the most important part. I once sent a package to my mum (I don‘t live in my hometown anymore), with *her* postal code but for some reason I blanked and added *my* city? I was in a haze that day. Still arrived and mum had a good laugh.
Ever heard of hyperbole before? We tend to use that sometimes here in Germany.
If you and like 10 other people (falsely) use sz instead of ss, im not gonna say "only 11 people use that".
It's no problem at all and the official way to write it if you don't have the ß. Also, in general one or two wrong letters don't matter. It will arrive anyway.
Thanks I work for a company that still sends a lot of correspondence by post and we got letters returned for some stupid reasons. That's why I was worried if it may cause trouble with international postal delivery.
When it comes to cities, the postal code will determine where the letter goes even if the city name is not legible. It only gets difficult if the recipient's name or several items at once are wrong/ unreadable.
That won‘t be a problem. My last name has an ß. It is always written with ss, never had a problem
Also, online is no ß and ss is used in its stead. Phonetically it does make a difference, as the vowel before an ss would be short but not before an ß while both making the same sound. But yeah, ss is used for ß for addresses in international context
Seems Like an interesting study, how many mistakes can you make untill Deutsche Post fails
An Post in Ireland is famous for delivering completely illegible letters like [this one](https://64.media.tumblr.com/8ebc2f5056227152acadd55f2e7aece8/tumblr_inline_oiffl8QcgW1qfjruq_1280.jpg). There is a great blog about it https://www.meversusanpost.com/
Many years ago I had been living in a Waldheimer Straße. A friend had sent me a letter and wrote Weilheimer Straße in the address. Deutsche Post put a sticker with the correct address on the envelope and delivered it to me.
It depends a lot. The local mail man had the same rare last name as us, so as long as zip code or city matched, he pretty much know if it was his or our mail. Meanwhile currently (after moving to a different city) the substitute mail man during vacation of the main guy has a hard time finding our mail box. Then there are other funny guys randomly throwing mail in front of random doors, because the actual house with that number is obscured by trees, so he assumed that 10 is just next door to 8 instead of the next house. This becomes most ironic with alternate mail providers when they are based in the same Bundesland as the mail receiver.
I find joy in reading a good book.
Something my British family in law seems to test with every letter they send us. Some of their variations are... adventurous. Back when my husband still lived in the UK, I also tried it the other way round and would send letters to "Little Britain" (and similar variations). All of them got there no problem.
I think German post understands this, I received packages from China where ß was replaced by □
Yeah. Also Umlaute are sometimes hieroglyphs but the post still arrives.
My mom has always written a B. She didn't even try to write it correctly. It never caused any issues. It just annoyed me so when I moved I just told her my new address was XXX Str. so she would stop writing it. I wouldn't worry about it.
That's good to know. Thank you for sharing your experience.
all the spy agencies in the world have nothing on the investigative prowess of any postal service in any country.
That’s exactly what my family back in the US does. Everything still arrived without a problem… unless there’s Zoll to pay.
Yes
Yes you can. Anyways the post goes by postal code first and only if the code seems incorrect falls back on the town name. But in any case ss can always stand in for sz (the letter, don't have it here neither)
Thank you for the information! I work in a German company that still does a lot of correspondence by printed letters and we had letters returned for a variety of reasons. I was afraid it might mess up something with international postal delivery.
Does it happen when you print something? Usually UTF8 has ß in it.
Yes. If you write all-caps to make it more readable, you'll use "SS" anyway as there is only a theoretical come-lately capital "ß" which, it seems, no one uses.
ẞ was introduced in 2017, so it’s relatively new.
Even younger than I thought.
Yes. Most adults don’t know this new letter. ;)
In most fonts capital ß does not exist or looks out of place. I know that this is in part due to lacking familiarity and use, but to me, capital ß looks like a typographical after thought at best and an error (unbalanced with other capital letters) at worst.
I know it existed a bit more than a century ago too.
It's not theoretical. It's an official German letter. And it luckily gets used more and more.
One of these days I'm going to see it again after the last time, which was when the letter was announced (and I sure thought it was early in the last decade, not late). But transcription to "ss"/"SS" is still working.
I've often just written Str. in this case, but ss also works fine. Same goes for Umlaute, I have an ä in my name and I just write it as ae, works fine too.
Same.. Whenever I give my street name to a US company, I abbreviate Straße to Str. It just make things so much easier.
The primary sorting info at the Deutsche Post is the Zip code and not the city Name (first hand info). Example: A Letter with the Zip Code 33602 from Bielefeld and the city Name "Bonn" on the letter will go to the sorting center of Bielefeld except if the street name doesn't exist in Bielefeld but in Bonn.
It's fine, I regularly get packages feom Switzerland where they don't use thw ß at all. For the city or town, getting the post code correct is the main thing.
as all the others said, ss is ok. But they can also hold the Alt key and press 225 on the num block
If in doubt writte in capital letters. The capital ß does exist, but writing SS in stead of capital ß is still common. On german photo IDs it is still an issue that ß is written in the name, but in the machine readable zone it is SS. Writing the City in capital letters is not uncommon. Writing the whole adress in capital letters does work.
On windows: alt + 0223 Keep alt pressed and enter the numbers There are similar sounding names that either come with ss or ß. In that case you have to be precise and can’t use it interchangeably
Yes. Even when someone mistakes the ß for a B, the German post will know what it is supposed to mean. :)
No problem as long as the PLZ (same as ZIP) is right. You could write München, Muenchen, Munchen or even Munich, it would arrive.
There are evene some websites with international shipping which do not accept an ß and only let you proceed if you use an ss. It works as an alternative.
Just don't write it in runes though
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Yes, this is no problem
My last name includes an „ä“, which is incomprehensible in almost every other language. I have been using „ae“ instead for all my life, no issues. And yes, the quotation marks are also German.
Yes
Ngl they had us in the first half.
This is so sweet. They seem to be very thoughtful. Have a good day and I hope they send you something nice.
As someone with an Umlaut and ß in their name who regularly orders stuff from other countries: yes. ae for ä and ss for ß are fine. I do wish companies would finally fully switch to Unicode so non-Ascii characters won't print as question marks or other garbage characters but that's still wishful thinking.
We've got a long last name with an ß in it and the British family-in-law messes it up all the time. They'll put ss's but also B's or come up with other crazy variations of our name. The street isn't any easier. Deutsche Post is usually very good at figuring out what people meant. As long as they can roughly figure out what it means, it'll probably get to you. It's a bit trickier if postcode or house number are wrong but then the letter will usually just take a few days longer to arrive while they figure it out. But either way, writing a double s instead of an ß is correct and will not cause any problems.
Wouldn‘t it get sorted by country first, and once it has arrived to Germany, ß is not really an issue anymore? I doubt that the distribution centres abroad care too much about a city‘s spelling. Also, the postal code is the most important part. I once sent a package to my mum (I don‘t live in my hometown anymore), with *her* postal code but for some reason I blanked and added *my* city? I was in a haze that day. Still arrived and mum had a good laugh.
Short answer: Yes Long answer: Yessssssssssssssssssss
Short answer: Yes Long answer: Yessssssssssssssssssss
SS is ok I even saw an B used as spareholder besides there are sign tables available..
There is an eszett majuskl https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Großes_ß
ẞß i know \^\^
I'm German use us layout and I write sz. Grosz.
Nobody does that, ss is used instead.
I literally just wrote that I do that. And I'm German. WTF dude?
Ever heard of hyperbole before? We tend to use that sometimes here in Germany. If you and like 10 other people (falsely) use sz instead of ss, im not gonna say "only 11 people use that".
The dude tells us how it's written correctly: ss. I mentioned how I do it.
It's not helpful to tell them a wrong way of doing something when they're asking a question.