Using Commas with Appositives

What is an appositive?

• An appositive shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word in the sentence.

• An appositive is a noun or pronoun that identifies or renames another noun or pronoun.

• An appositive modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

• An appositive is a word used in place of a noun or another pronoun.

Choose the appositive.
John, where are you moving? I am moving to the best state in America, Texas.

• John

• Texas

• no appositive

Identify the appositive in the following sentence: The teacher, Mrs. Smith, is very kind and helpful.

• The teacher

• Mrs. Smith

• Helpful

• Is very kind

Identify the appositive phrase in the sentence below. The party, a celebration of my friend’s eighteenth birthday, was held at a local swimming pool.

• a local swimming pool

• The party

• a celebration of my friend’s eighteenth birthday

Which of the following sentences has an appositive?

• My dog is brown.

• The horses are orange.

• Gus, Eric's black cat, slowly crept up behind the kittens.

• The fish is blue.

Identify the appositive:

My cousin, Sammy, broke his arm in the championship game last weekend.

• cousin

• Sammy

• arm

• game

Which sentence uses the appositive correctly?

• St. Augustine one of the oldest U.S. cities, was established by Spain.

• St. Augustine, one of the oldest U.S. cities, was established by Spain.

Identify the non-restrictive appositive:

Jack's ice cream, a huge mound of chocolate, started to melt.

• Jack's ice cream

• started

• to melt

• a huge mound of chocolate

Lauren my sister-in-law is going to have a baby this coming May.

• non-restrictive appositive

• restrictive appositive

• non-restrictive clause

• non-restrictive participial phrase

• restrictive participial phrase

Which one of the underlined words in the following sentence is an appositive?

Doesn’t your uncle Jeremy play the accordion in a band?

• uncle

• Jeremy

• accordion

• band