Capitalisation
The reform aims to make the capitalisation of nouns uniform, and clarifies the criteria for this.
- infrage stellen → in Frage stellen (to call into question)
- eislaufen → Eis laufen (to ice-skate)
Examples such as Eis laufen are thought by some to be grammatically incorrect, the reason being laufen (literally to go, to walk, to run) is an intransitive verb and cannot take a direct object, thus engendering some harsh criticism of the spelling reform. However, this is not true: in this word, Eis is a verb modifier, not a direct object in any way; that is, it is an attachment to the verb stem which changes or specifies the meaning of the verb.
Capitalisation after a colon is now obligatory if a full sentence or direct speech follow. Otherwise one has to write with a small letter after a colon.
The polite capitalisation of du, dich, dein, ihr, euch, and euer (the cases of the familiar second person pronouns) in letters is discouraged, but it is retained for Sie, Ihnen, and Ihr (the formal second person pronouns).
Read more about this topic: German Orthography Reform Of 1996, New Rules