When reporting from the red carpet of a major film premiere, you often need to pause and describe the VIPs. You can do this using a noun apposition—a descriptive phrase set off by commas that sits directly next to a noun to give more information about it.
| the celebrity | die Berühmtheit |
The golden rule of German appositions is case agreement: the apposition must always match the case of the noun it modifies.
Nominative Appositions
When you describe the subject of the sentence, the noun is in the nominative case. Therefore, the apposition must also be nominative.
| The star, a real celebrity, is coming to the premiere. | Der Star, eine echte Berühmtheit, kommt zur Premiere. |
| Mia, a talented actress, plays the leading role. | Mia, eine talentierte Schauspielerin, spielt die Hauptrolle. |
Notice how eine echte Berühmtheit and eine talentierte Schauspielerin both match their respective nominative subjects.
Accusative Appositions
If the noun you are describing is the direct object of the sentence, it will be in the accusative case. Its apposition must reflect this.
| We see the designer, a very well-known man. | Wir sehen den Designer, einen sehr bekannten Mann. |
Because der Designer becomes den Designer (masculine accusative), the apposition describing him must also be in the masculine accusative: einen sehr bekannten Mann.
Dative Appositions
The exact same rule applies to indirect objects and nouns that follow dative prepositions (like mit). The main noun and its apposition both take the dative case.
| The photographer is speaking with the director, a talented man. | Der Fotograf spricht mit dem Regisseur, einem talentierten Mann. |
Here, the preposition mit forces der Regisseur into the dative case (dem Regisseur). The apposition matches this with the dative ending -em (einem talentierten Mann).
This also works for indirect objects receiving something, like an award or an autograph:
| He gives the actress, a glamorous woman, the award. | Er gibt der Schauspielerin, einer glamourösen Frau, die Auszeichnung. |
| He gives the fan, a little girl, the autograph. | Er gibt dem Fan, einem kleinen Mädchen, das Autogramm. |