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Appositives
1. A noun directly following another noun or pronoun to identify, or rename, it is an appositive, or a
noun in apposition.
2. An appositive is in the same case as the noun which it renames. (If it renames the subject, it is in the
subjective case. If it renames an object, it is in the objective case.)
3. At this level, you will just be concerned with learning how to identify appositives. Therefore, at this
time, you are to set off all appositives (with their modifiers) with commas. Later, you will study
differences in punctuation rules for appositives.
4. An appositive may occur in any of the seven patterns which you have learned. Since an appositive is
extra information, it can also be used to combine choppy sentences.
Example: Biographies appeal to many people. They are stories of persons' lives.
Biographies, stories of persons' lives, appeal to many people.
5. An appositive is different from an object complement noun (OCN). An object complement always
follows a direct object and names what the direct object has become as a result of the action of the
verb. For example, in the sentence "We elected him president," president, the OCN, names what the
direct object (him) has become (president) as a result of the action of the verb (elected).
6. A direct object can also have an appositive. For example, in the sentence "We chose Brad, my
brother," my brother is not an OCN. We did not choose Brad to be my brother. My brother simply
follows Brad and re-names him. My brother in this sentence is an appositive.
7. Examples of appositives being used in different ways are given below.
Examples of Appositives Used in Patterns 1-7
Pattern 1 (SN + V): Anthony, my friend, is here.
Pattern 2 (SN + V + DO): I hugged Sara, my sister.
Pattern 3 (SN + V + IO + DO): I gave Bill, the postman, a letter.
Pattern 4 (SN + LV + PrN): Sue, the girl next door, is my friend.
Pattern 5 (SN + LV + PrAdj): The clown, a circus performer, is funny.
Pattern 6 (SN + V + DO + OCN): They, the people, elected him President.
Pattern 7 (SN + V + DO + OCAdj): The old man, my grandfather, painted the barn red.