Language 10 Appositives and Appositive Phrases

Here’s the idea: An appositive is a noun or pronoun that identifies or renames another noun or pronoun. An appositive phrase is made up of an appositive plus its modifiers. Example: Gail Devers, a champion sprinter, was born in Seattle in “sprinter” is the appositive because it identifies a person Barcelona, a large city in Spain, hosted the Olympics in “City” identifies a place.

Essential and Nonessential appositives: An essential appositive is an appositive that provides information that is needed to identify the preceding noun or pronoun. The American sprinter Gail Devers won an Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter dash in A nonessential appositive adds information about a noun or pronoun in a sentence in which the meaning is already clear. Devers, a survivor of Graves’ disease, overcame many obstacles to achieve athletic success. * appositive phrases are often easy to identify because they start with an “a,” “the”

Practice: Identify the noun the appositive renames/identifies and the appositive and the appositive phrases 1. Wilma Rudolph, another champion sprinter, also overcame a disability. 2. Her mother, Blanche Rudolph, helped her recover. 3. Rudolph, a determined child, ignored doctors’ predictions about never being able to walk again. 4.A basketball star at age 13, she was known for her speed.