Haben Sie schon meinen Freund, den Polizisten, kennengelernt?
Have you met my friend the policeman?Könnten Sie bitte meinem Freund, dem Polizisten, helfen?
Could you please help my friend the policeman?Das ist die Wohnung meines Freundes, des Polizisten.
That is the flat of my friend the policeman.Note that the noun in apposition is separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.
However, titles of books, films, plays, etc. which are in apposition to a noun that
describes them do not have the same case as the latter and are not separated by
commas:Kennst du den Film ‘Der Mann im Schatten’?
Do you know the film ‘The Man in the Shadow’?Das kommt im Stück ‘Die Drei Schwestern’ mehrmals vor.
That occurs several times in the play ‘The Three Sisters’:See 59.5a (p. 153).
21.2 Apposition also applies in noun phrases denoting measurements and quantities, where
English uses ‘of’:
See also under functions,^63 (pp. 180–8) ‘Eating and drinking’.
Ein Glas kalte Milch, bitte.
A glass of cold milk, please.Eine Tasse indischen Tee, bitte.
A cup of Indian tea, please.In these two examples Milch and Tee are in the accusative to agree with Glas and
Tasse, respectively, which are the objects of an (implied) verb such as ‘Give (me)’ or ‘I
would like’.Haben Sie meine Tasche mit den zwei Dosen grünen Bohnen gesehen?
Have you seen my bag with the two tins of green beans?(Here, Bohnen is in the dative plural to agree with dative plural Dosen.)See^18 (pp. 24–6) and^19 (pp. 26–31).
21.3 Following a numeral or some other expression of amount, masculine and neuter nouns
denoting measurement, quantity or value are only used in the singular:
Bringen Sie uns zwei Glas Bier, bitte.
Bring us two beers, please (lit. two glasses of beer).Bei 35 Grad Hitze bleibe ich in der Wohnung.
When it’s 35 degrees (lit. of heat), I stay indoors.Feminine nouns, however, use plural forms:Sechs Flaschen Weißwein.
Six bottles of white wine.21
CASE SYSTEM