It is set off by commas unless closely tied to the word that it identifies or renames. Or pronoun A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun or a group of words used as a noun. Here removing Tagore will make it impossible to interpret the meaning of the sentence.Lesson 126 Parts of the Sentence - AppositivesĪn appositive is a word or group of words that identifies or renames the noun A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. An example is Tagore in the sentence ‘I am writing a biography of the poet Tagore’. A restrictive appositive is not set off by commas in writing. A restrictive appositive is required for the identification of the reference of the first noun phrase. An appositive can also be restrictive, although it is not very common. The sentence ‘Alice has seven cats’, for example, is both grammatical and sensible.

Tagore, the great poet, is the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for literature.Īn appositive can be easily removed from a sentence without leaving behind anything ungrammatical.

(Here the noun phrase ‘the largest city in the Americas’ is used in apposition to the noun phrase ‘Mexico City’.)

Mexico City, the largest city in the Americas, is heavily polluted.

The phrases set off by commas in the following sentences are examples of non-restrictive appositives. In writing a non-restrictive appositive is set off by commas. An appositive is usually non-restrictive which means that it only gives additional information about the first noun phrase whose reference in quite clear.

The label appositive refers to a noun phrase which immediately follows another noun phrase of identical reference.

What is an appositive