Appositives and Appositive Phrases
Updated: Oct 21
A grammar post about how to use appositive to improve the clarity of your writing.
Many grammar terms are used but not often understood. Appositives are one of them. Often confused and misunderstood, appositives are either left out of sentences when they could be useful or placed in the wrong place.
Knowing how to correctly use appositives in your writing can be tricky. This post not only explains the definitions but also provides useful tips to help you recognize and use appositives and appositive phrases.
First, let's get into what an appositive is and isn't.
What is an appositive?
The definition: An appositive is a noun that specifies another noun.
This is an accurate definition of an appositive, but it often comes off as too simplistic to understand and apply. What if you don't even remember what a noun is?
Instead, I often explain it this way: Appositives give more information about a similar word in the same sentence. You'll often find them at the beginning of a sentence and close to the word they're supporting.
And if you really don't remember what a noun is, then I follow with its definition.
A noun is a word that represents a person, place, thing or idea.
For example:
Mrs. Jackson (noun|person)
taught grammar (noun|thing)
in a school (noun|place)
Note: Nouns can also be abstract things like love, hate, or thought.
What an Appositive isn't
An appositive is not an adjective. This is a common confusion. Although an appositive does something similar to an adjective, it is not one.
Adjectives describe nouns and answer the questions: which one?, how many?, and what kind? Appositives do not do that. They are nouns. They clarify, but they don't describe.
Two ways to use appositives
1. Use an appositive when you need to give another noun specifics or context in a sentence.
For example: "My neighbor Aisha is very sweet and friendly." ❤
In the sentence above, Neighbor is the subject and primary noun in the sentence and Aisha is the appositive specifying which neighbor is being referred to.
Use an appositive phrase when you want to expand the context around a noun.
For example: Mrs. Jackson, the former grammar teacher, started "Grammar Tip Tuesdays" in 2019 after she left teaching full time.
In the sentence, the word teacher is the appositive that specifies the subject Mrs. Jackson, and the words before the appositive are used to "modify" or provide more information about the appositive.
What is an appositive phrase?
An appositive phrase is a group of words that contains an appositive and its modifiers.
So if it's one word, it's just an appositive. If the appositive has its own modifiers, then it sits within an appositive phrase.
In the previous example of an appositive phrase: the former grammar teacher, the words the, former and grammar are describing which one and what kind of teacher.
The noun teacher remains as the appositive but the entire phrase works together to do the same job.
How appositives help readers
In fiction and nonfiction, appositives provide readers with more context about a new character or place being introduced.
Introducing a person: Mr. Rogers, the beloved TV personality, made a positive impact on many children.
Introducing a place: For example: My favorite Orlando park, Eola, is perfect for swan watching.
Journalists often use appositives in news stories. If you read a magazine article or newspaper, you are likely to find a lot of appositives and appositive phrases.
Punctuating essential and nonessential appositive phrases
If the appositive is needed to express the essential meaning of the sentence, don't use commas. This means if you take the appositive out of the sentence, the full meaning will be lost.
For example: My brother Murray is a pastor. Since I have two other brothers, I need to specify which one for clarity.
If the word or phrase is nonessential (added information that is nice to have but not needed) then use commas to separate the word or phrase from the rest of the sentence.
For example: My favorite movie, The Wiz, stars Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.
Since I only have one favorite, I don't need the title, but it helps. But, since I have more than one neighbor, and more than one brother, I needed to specify which one in the other examples.
