Phrases

Appositives & Appositive Phrases

Appositives & Appositive Phrases

• The word appose means “to place near or next to.”

• Appositives are placed next to the nouns or pronouns to which they relate

• Usually follows the word it identifies, renames, or explains

Appositives & Appositive Phrases

Examples:

Raymond wrote his history report on the sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln’s home state, Illinois, is the site of both his first law office and his tomb.

Appositive Phrases

• An appositive usually includes modifiers

• When it does, it is called an appositive phrase

Appositive Phrases

Examples:

During Lincoln’s presidency, the Civil

War, a long and costly war, began

and ended.

Appositive Phrases

Examples:

Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address,

one of history’s most memorable

speeches.

Appositive Phrases

Examples:

The war, the bloodiest in U.S. history, (sometimes includes a prep. Phrase)

accomplished Lincoln’s goal of preserving

the union.

Appositive Phrases• Appositives and appositive phrases can be

compounded

Example:

At Appomattox Court House, the two opposing generals, Lee and Grant, signed the documents that ended the Civil War.

Appositive Phrases

Punctuation

• If an appositive contains essential information to the meaning of a sentence, no punctuation is needed

• Information is considered essential if it identifies a person, place, or thing

Essential: My brother Bill organized a surprise party for my older brother, Tom.

Appositive PhrasesPunctuation

• If an appositive contains nonessential information to the meaning of a sentence, commas should be used to separate it from the rest of the sentence

• Information is considered nonessential if it can be removed without changing the basic meaning of a sentence

Nonessential: John Wilkes Booth, the stage actor, assassinated Lincoln.

(Commas are used because the appositive phrase could be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence.)