Jass terms glossary

Why are Swiss German terms used in Jass?

Jass uses a Swiss German vocabulary for its cards, contracts and scoring rules. French-speaking players may discuss the game in French, but many technical terms remain Swiss German at the table. A reader can therefore encounter Swiss German words beside French explanations without facing a different game.

The original term often carries a more exact meaning than a direct translation. A translation may identify a card or action in general terms, while the Swiss German word points to the convention used in Jass. Weis, for example, means a meld declared during the opening trick. Stöck identifies the king and Ober of the trump suit held in one hand. Keeping the original words visible makes rules easier to compare across regions.

French-speaking Switzerland has its own vocabulary alongside the Swiss German terms. The Brünig-Napf-Reuss line divides the country for card traditions: Swiss-German cards are used to the east, and French cards are used to the west. The suit systems correspond exactly. Schellen means bells and corresponds to diamonds, Schilten means shields and corresponds to spades, Rosen means roses and corresponds to hearts, and Eicheln means acorns and corresponds to clubs.

The court cards follow the same correspondence. Swiss-German cards use Under, Ober and König. The French deck uses jack, queen and king. The Under has a special name in trump: Puur. The printed design changes between decks, but the suit position and card role remain the same.

The multiplier binds to the suit position, never to the picture printed on the card. Choosing the French deck therefore changes nothing about the score. A player who moves between the two card systems does not need to learn a separate set of card values or contract values.

Regional speech can still affect pronunciation, preferred wording and the French twin used for a term. Such differences do not automatically signal a different rule. A regional rule must be named as a variant rather than treated as universal. The Schieber rules place the vocabulary in the standard partnership format, while the card values guide explains the strength and value attached to each card.

Use the Swiss German term first when reading a rule, then use the gloss to identify its function. That method helps an English-speaking reader recognise the same word in a rules explanation, a card description or a conversation at a table. Jass vocabulary remains part of the game’s structure, not merely a collection of local nicknames.

How are Jass cards named and ranked?

Jass cards are identified by suit, rank and the contract in force. Card strength changes between trump, plain suits, Obenabe and Undenufe. A player must therefore establish the contract before deciding which card wins a trick.

The trump suit has the following order from strongest to weakest: Under, nine, ace, king, Ober, ten, eight, seven and six. The trump Under is the Puur, and the trump nine is the Nell. These names describe the special trump cards rather than adding cards to the pack. A trump Puur beats every other trump card, and the Nell follows directly below it.

Plain suits use a different order: ace, king, Ober, Under, ten, nine, eight, seven and six. Obenabe means the top-down contract and follows that plain-suit order. Obenabe has no trump suit, so the Puur and Nell do not receive their trump strength. The printed rank still matters, but the trump names do not create a separate high-card order in Obenabe.

Undenufe means the bottom-up contract and reverses the whole trick ladder. The order from strongest to weakest is six, seven, eight, nine, ten, Under, Ober, king and ace. A six can therefore win against every higher printed rank in the same suit under Undenufe. A player who carries the ordinary ace-high order into Undenufe will misread the trick.

Weis uses a separate order from trick-taking. Sequences always count in the natural order from six to ace, even in Undenufe. A sequence that is read naturally for Weis does not become reversed merely because the six is strongest in the tricks. Card strength and meld order must be kept separate.

The four Swiss-German suits are Schellen, Schilten, Rosen and Eicheln. The French equivalents are diamonds, spades, hearts and clubs, in the same suit positions. The multiplier follows the position of the suit rather than its printed symbol, so a French-suited card has the same rule role as its Swiss-German counterpart.

A worked example shows why the contract matters. In a plain suit, the ace is above the king and the Ober. In Undenufe, the six is above the seven, while the ace is at the bottom. In trump, neither the plain-suit order nor the Undenufe order applies: the Puur is highest and the Nell is next. The card values guide gives the complete ranking in a form suitable for checking during play.

What do Weis and Stöck mean in Jass scoring?

Weis is the Jass meld system, and the best meld is announced on the first trick. Each player states only the value of the player’s best meld while playing a card, in turn. The team that holds the single best Weis shows the actual cards on the second trick, and only then are the points certain.

A sequence in one suit scores according to its length. A sequence of 3 cards scores 20, 4 cards scores 50, 5 cards scores 100, 6 cards scores 150, 7 cards scores 200, 8 cards scores 250 and 9 cards scores 300. Four of a kind has a separate scale: four Under cards score 200, four Nell cards score 150, and four aces, kings, Obers or tens score 100. Four sixes, sevens or eights are worth nothing as Weis.

A card may belong to a sequence and to a four of a kind at the same time. The overlap does not allow both teams to write. Only the team holding the single best Weis writes anything, and that team writes both partners’ melds together. The other team writes nothing, even after announcing a meld.

Comparison follows a fixed order. Points come first. If points are equal, the meld with more cards wins. If the card count is also equal, the highest card in the meld decides. A meld in the trump suit then takes priority, followed by seat position relative to the forehand. Weis always reads sequences in natural order from six to ace, including in Undenufe.

Partners must keep meld information private from one another. A player may not tell a partner about a meld or ask a partner about one. Only the announced values are public during the first trick. A player says “twenty”, “fifty” or “a hundred”, rather than naming the cards behind the declaration.

Stöck means holding the king and Ober of the trump suit in one hand. Stöck scores 20 and belongs to the team regardless of the Weis comparison. Stöck does not exist in Obenabe or Undenufe. The player declares Stöck while playing the second of the two cards, not the first. If the next player has already covered that card before the declaration, the 20 points are lost. Partners may not remind each other.

The Weis rules set out meld declarations and comparison. The Stöck reference covers the second-card timing. The terms belong to separate parts of the score, so a correct declaration must also be made at the correct moment.

How is Jass scoring described beyond card names?

Jass scoring language describes card points, Weis, Stöck, tricks and the target. A round uses a 36-card pack, with 9 cards dealt to each of 4 players. The round contains 9 tricks. The pack provides 152 card points, and the last trick adds 5 points, giving 157 points for the cards and last trick in a round.

A team that wins all 9 tricks receives an additional 100 points. A round in which one team takes all 9 tricks therefore has 257 available points before any Weis or Stöck is added. The terms for these scoring blocks matter because the final result does not depend only on the number of tricks won.

Targets used in practice include 1000, 1500, 2500 and 3000. The app offers 1000 and 2500. A target is checked after a round, and the scoring blocks are counted in a fixed order when a team passes the target. Weis is counted first, Stöck second and tricks third. A team that crosses the target in an earlier block wins.

The order can decide a close finish. Suppose a team has enough points to pass the target after Weis is counted, while the other team would pass only after its Stöck or tricks are counted. The earlier crossing decides the result. The rule does not compare the final totals after every block has been added; the order of Weis, Stöck and tricks controls the decision.

Schieber names a partnership form of Jass in which the contract and play follow the rules of that format. Obenabe and Undenufe are contracts, not card names. Obenabe uses the ace-high plain-suit order. Undenufe uses the inverted order from six down to ace. Stöck is available with a trump contract, but not with Obenabe or Undenufe.

The word Jasstafel means a Jass score board or scoring record. A Jasstafel helps players keep the separate blocks visible, especially when a team declares Weis, declares Stöck and wins tricks in the same round. The record should preserve the order used to determine a target crossing rather than showing only one combined total.

The contract guide explains the contract names and their ranking systems. The Jass boundary gives the regional card context behind Swiss-German and French suits. Together, the vocabulary and the score rules show why a translated summary can miss details: a term may identify a declaration, a card order, a regional practice or the precise point at which a result is decided.

Jass

The family of Swiss trick-taking card games played with 36 cards, and the national card game of Switzerland. Schieber is its most played form.

Schieber

Jass for four players in two fixed teams, named after the right of the forehand to push the choice of contract across to their partner exactly once.

Trumpf

The suit that beats every other suit for the round. Its Under is worth 20 and its nine 14, so the trump suit alone holds 62 of the 152 card points.

Obenabe

A contract with no trump in which the cards keep their ordinary strength, ace high. Every eight is worth 8 points, and the pack still totals 152.

Undenufe

A contract with no trump played upside down: the six is the strongest card and the ace the weakest. The six is worth 11 and the ace nothing.

Weis

A meld shown on the first trick: three or more cards in sequence in one suit, or four of a kind. Only the team holding the single best Weis writes anything, and it writes both partners’ melds.

Stöck

The king and Ober of the trump suit in one hand, worth 20 points. It is credited to that team whatever happens with Weis, and it does not exist in Obenabe or Undenufe.

Puur Under

The Under of the trump suit — the highest card in the pack during a trump contract, worth 20 points. A player is never forced to play it.

Nell

The nine of the trump suit, the second highest card in a trump contract and worth 14 points. Outside the trump suit a nine is worth nothing.

Banner

The ten, worth 10 points in every contract. In the strength order it sits below the Under and above the nine, which surprises players who come from other card games.

Ober

The Swiss-German court card that corresponds to the queen of a French deck, worth 3 points.

Stich

One round of four cards, one from each player. The winner leads the next; the ninth and last trick is worth 5 extra points.

Match

All nine tricks taken by one team, worth 100 points on top of the round, for a total of 257.

Jasstafel

The slate board the score is chalked on, divided into two columns. Hundreds are written on the top row, fifties in the middle and twenties at the bottom.

Schieben

Pushing the choice of contract across the table to your partner, who must then choose. It may be done once and never pushed back.

Farbzwang

The obligation to follow the suit that was led if you hold it. In a trump contract you may play a trump instead, but you may not discard another suit.

Untertrumpfen

Playing a trump lower than a trump already on the trick. It is forbidden unless your hand is nothing but trumps, in which case you must.

Vorderhand forehand

The player to the dealer’s right, who chooses the contract and leads the first trick. Play runs counter-clockwise, which is why it is the right and not the left.

Coiffeur

A Schieber variant in which nobody chooses: each team plays every contract exactly once, each with its own factor, and only the tens of a round are written down.

Differenzler

A Jass for four individuals in which each predicts their own trick points before the first card. The difference between prediction and result is the score, and the lowest total wins.

Slalom

A Coiffeur contract that alternates between Obenabe and Undenufe from trick to trick, starting with whichever the name specifies.

Guschti

A Coiffeur contract of five tricks one way and four the other — five Obenabe then four Undenufe, or the reverse. Also called Mary or Gusti.

Bock

A free choice of contract in Coiffeur, usually printed as a joker column and carrying the highest factor on the sheet.

Jassgrenze

The Brünig-Napf-Reuss line, east of which Jass is played with Swiss-German cards and west of which the French deck is used.

Schellen

The bells: the Swiss-German suit that corresponds to diamonds in a French deck.

Schilten

The shields: the Swiss-German suit that corresponds to spades.

Rosen

The roses: the Swiss-German suit that corresponds to hearts.

Eicheln

The acorns: the Swiss-German suit that corresponds to clubs.

Handjass

Jass for two players, dealt from the hand with a talon, keeping the trump ranking and the melds of the four-handed game.

Bergpreis

A side prize in some tournaments for the team leading when the score passes the halfway mark of the target.