What Is an Appositive?
Learn about appositives! These little guys are nouns that rename another noun or pronoun. We use them to add more information into our sentences and give more information about someone or something that we have already named. __________________________________________________________ Quick Refresher: Remember that nouns are words that name people, places, things, or ideas, and pronouns are words that take the place of nouns. __________________________________________________________ Examples: Mr. Kimball, the principal, kicked me out of school!My mother, a lovely woman, baked cupcakes for my birthday.Henry, my little puppy, chewed my shoes apart while I was gone.
Renaming?I said that these are nouns that rename another noun or pronoun. What do I mean by that? Well, let's look at that first example again. Mr. Kimball, the principal, kicked me out of school!Mr. Kimball is the subject of the sentence. It is also a noun. The word principal is renaming Mr. Kimball. It is a noun that gives us more information about Mr. Kimball, and we could even substitute principal for Mr. Kimball because they are both referring to the same person. Hence, principal is a noun that renames another noun, Mr.Kimball.
PhrasesThe appositive is the single word that is doing the renaming. In this example Mr. Kimball, the principal, kicked me out of school!it would be principal. The phrase is that single word plus all of the words that are modifying it. In that same example Mr. Kimball, the principal, kicked me out of school!the phrase is my principal. Here are the two other examples from above. My mother, a lovely woman, baked cupcakes for my birthday.Henry, my little puppy, chewed my shoes apart while I was gone.
Basic DiagrammingDiagram the sentence as usual and add the appositive in parenthesis after the noun that it renames. Add any words that modify it on slanted lines just like other modifiers.
For example, here is the sentence diagram for the sentence:
Esther, my little sister, threw her shoes in the pond.
Now, you, my lovely students, can go on to learn about sentence diagramming!
Finished with the Appositive? Go Back to Phrases. Back to English Grammar Home Page
 Have Fun & Learn Grammar Now!Learn Grammar the Easy Way: Diagramming Sentences 
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