Ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to learn about German appositions!
Never heard of appositions? You're not alone—it's not your regular vocabulary word! Don't worry, though. Soon, you’ll know exactly what an apposition is and and how to use one. Let's get started!
What Are Appositions?
An apposition is the information we put in a noun phrase right after another noun phrase to help describe that first phrase. We can then say that the second one is "in apposition".
An apposition is when a noun (or noun phrase) describes another noun phrase.
I know there’s a bit too much grammar lingo here, so I’ll give you some examples of what I mean. Check it out:
- Mein Bruder, der Lehrer (My brother, the teacher)
- München, die Hauptstadt Bayerns (Munich, the capital of Bavaria)
- Mini, der Hund meines Nachbarn (Mini, my neighbor’s dog)
→ In the first example, we have the noun phrase, “Mein Bruder” and it’s followed by another noun phrase, “der Lehrer”. The appositive noun phrase “der Lehrer” is not a separate idea. It’s referring to the word “Bruder” and describes it. We now know that my brother is a teacher.
Not so bad, right?
Jabba, der Hutte
(Jabba, the Hutt)
Where Do Appositions Go In A Sentence?
Appositions usually come right after the word they refer to, as we just saw.
You can identify the apposition by its position—it will normally be the second noun phrase, coming right after the one that it describes.
If we go back to our example with the neighbor’s dog, you can see that the apposition is right after the noun (or noun phrase).
- Das ist Mini, der Hund meines Nachbarn. (This is Mini, my neighbor’s dog.)
Here you can see that the apposition, “der Hund meines Nachbarn”, comes right after “Mini”, which is our reference point.
Here are a few more examples:
- Gogo, der Freund von Tim, spielt gut Klavier. (Gogo, Tim’s friend, plays the piano well.)
- Ich sehe Katie, die Nachbarin von Tanja, im Supermarkt einkaufen. (I see Katie, Tanja’s neighbor, shopping in the supermarket.)
How Do We Use Appositions In German?
When we want to offer more information about a noun, we put the apposition right after it by adding a comma before and after it.
Here’s an example:
- Mein Bruder, der Lehrer, hat viele Jahre lang studiert. (My brother, the teacher, has studied for many years.)
- Mini, der Hund, hat ein schönes Fell. (Mini, the dog, has a nice fur.)
See that? The apposition is between two commas.
Appositions will often be separated from the word they are describing with a comma.
Another important bit of trivia: They will also usually have the same case as the noun they are describing.
Look at this example here:
Nominative
- Das ist Mini, der Hund meines Nachbarn. (This is Mini, my neighbor’s dog.)
- Hier ist mein Bruder, der Lehrer aus der Klasse 5B. (Here’s my brother, the teacher from class 5B.)
Mini, der faule Hund, isst Käseflips auf der Couch.
(Mini, the lazy dog, is eating cheese puffs on the couch.)
Accusative
- Ich habe Mini, den Hund meines Nachbarn, lange nicht gesehen.
(I haven’t seen Mini, my neighbor’s dog, for a long time.) - Sie hat Sara, die Schwester ihrer Freundin, gestern Abend angerufen.
(She called Sara, her friends’ sister, last night.)
Appositions With Prepositions
We also use the same case for the apposition when there's a preposition (words like für, zu, mit—for, to, with, etc...) in front of the noun.
Prepositions followed by the Dative
- Ich spiele mit Mini, dem Hund meines Nachbarn. (I play with Mini, my neighbor’s dog.)
Prepositions followed by the Accusative
- Ich kaufe für Mini, den Hund meines Nachbarn, Leckerlis. (I buy treats for Mini, my neighbor’s dog.)
Using Multiple Appositions In German
You can also use more than one apposition in a sentence. Just make sure you use commas, like this:
- Das ist Mini, der Hund meines Nachbarn, ein kleiner Welpe. (This is Mini, my neighbor’s dog, a little puppy.)
- Das ist Katie, die Besitzerin des Hundes, die Frau des Nachbarn. (This is Katie, the dog’s owner, the neighbor’s wife.)
German Appositions With "als" And "wie"
The apposition does not have to be right after the noun it refers to. In this case it is usually separated by a conjunction ("als" or "wie").
- Ich als Student muss sehr viel lernen. (Me as a student I have to learn a lot.)
- Usain Bolt hat als der schnellste Mann der Welt schon viele Rennen gewonnen. (Usain Bolt has, as the fastest man in the world, won many races.)
- Er hat ein Auto wie dieses. (He has a car like this one.)
A Little Break And Disclaimer
First off, let me just congratulate you on what a fantastic job you’re doing!
Du, lieber Schüler, machst das echt gut!
You, dear student, are doing (that) really well!
Keep in mind, when you’re learning a new language it’s completely normal that you want to know what everything means in your native language. Unfortunately, this is nearly impossible.
Languages don't always work the same way. If you translate everything literally, some things might not make sense in your native language.
Most of the time, just getting the general gist of a phrase is good enough. Deeper understanding will come with time and context.
Other Ways To Use Appositions
Appositions With Geographical Names
German often uses "appositional constructions" with geographical names.
That's just a complicated way to say that we often make small 2-word appositions to talk about places. Just take a look at these examples, and you'll see what I mean:
Examples:
- die Insel Mallorca (the island of Mallorca)
- die Universität München (the university of Munich)
- die Stadt Frankfurt (the city of Frankfurt)
In English, these kinds of phrases use “of” to connect the two nouns, but German just combines them directly.
Appositions With Numbers And Measurements
When we want to add extra context to a single noun, an amount, or a measurement, we often use appositions to provide that information. Don't worry, it'll make more sense with a few examples:
- Wir trinken zusammen eine Tasse Kaffee. (We'll have a cup [of] coffee together.)
- Du kaufst zwei Dutzend Eier. (You are buying two dozen eggs.)
- Ein Kilo Kaffee kostet 10 Euro. (One kilo [of] coffee costs 10 Euros.)
So macht man eine Tasse Kaffee.
(That's how you make a cup of coffee.)
See? It just means that that we don't need to use any prepositions (like "von") in many of the phrases that use "of" in English.
When speaking to a German who is still learning English, you may hear them say something like, "I would like a 'cup coffee'." This is because the speaker is trying to use the German rules for appositions in English!
Sneaky Exceptions
Of course, there are always exceptions. In this case, two very common ones that you should be aware of.
- When we are referring to a noun in the Genitive case and have an "unqualified" noun (without an article or any adjective) in apposition, we usually put it in the Nominative case. It looks like this:
- Das Auto der Frau, Besitzerin des Restaurants, ist kaputt. (The woman’s car, the owner of the restaurant, is broken.)
- Der Geburtstag seines Vaters, Bürgermeister von München, ist morgen. (His father’s birthday, the mayor of Munich, is tomorrow.)
- When we use weekdays and dates, which are introduced by the preposition “am” (on), the date - in apposition - can be in either the Dative or Accusative case.
- Wir treffen uns am Freitag, den 13. Juli, in der Cafeteria. (We are meeting on Friday, the 13th of July, in the cafeteria.)
- Der Termin ist am Montag, dem 30. Januar 2021. (The appointment is on Monday, the 30th of January 2021.)
And that's it for our exceptions. I don’t know about you, but this lesson was smoother than a...
Wie bitte?
Okay, I’ll stop right there. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and have some good take-aways about appositions, the minions of grammar.
Ready to test your skills? Make sure to do our exercises for appositions!
