Laser technology

English stacks a label in front of the noun: « a class 4 laser ». German moves the class behind the noun and puts it in the genitive: ein Laser der Klasse 4, literally a laser of class 4. It is the pattern German uses for any rank or grade — ein Hotel der gehobenen Klasse, ein Wagen der Mittelklasse — and it has one consequence worth knowing early. When the sentence changes the case of the laser, only the front moves: mit einem Laser der Klasse 4, where der Klasse stays exactly as it was, because it belongs to the laser and not to the verb. The compound die Laserklasse names the scale itself — Welche Laserklasse hat das Gerät? — while the genitive phrase is what you will hear on a warning sign and in any briefing a Laserschutzbeauftragter gives.