Phrases

APPOSITIVE PHRASES

Phrases

Phrase

A phrase is a group of words, without a subject and verb, that functions in a sentence as one part of speech.

Appositive Phrase

An appositive is a noun or pronoun placed next to another noun or pronoun to identify, rename, or explain it.

Comes from the Latin word appositus, which means to place near

Appositive Phrase

I will race with my best stroke, the butterfly.

His favorite flowers, snapdragons, grew everywhere in the garden.

Punctuating Appositives

If an appositive contains nonessential material (material that can be removed from the sentence without altering its meaning), set the appositive off from the rest of the sentence with commas or other appropriate punctuation.

Appositive Phrase

I will race with my best stroke, the butterfly.

His favorite flowers, snapdragons, grew everywhere in the garden.

Punctuating Appositives

If an appositive contains material that is essential to the meaning of the sentence, no punctuation is necessary.

The short story “Fire and Ice” has a sad ending.

Appositive Phrase

An appositive phrase is a noun or pronoun with modifiers, placed next to a noun or pronoun to add information or details.

The modifiers in an appositive phrase can be adjectives, adjective phrases, or other words that function as adjectives.

Appositive Phrase

Appositives or appositive phrases can add information to almost any noun or pronoun in a sentence.

Appositive PhraseTo a subject: Mrs. Ellingson, an expert on career

planning, spoke to the entire assembly.

To a direct object: I won the door prize, a fifty dollar gift certificate.

To an indirect object: I sold Dean, my friend’s older brother, my old set of golf clubs.

To an objective complement: We stained the desk walnut – my favorite wood grain.

Appositive PhraseTo a predicate nominative: Our automobile is a

green station wagon – a family car.

To an object of the preposition: The stacks of books – all mysteries – looked inviting.

Appositive Phrase

Appositives or appositive phrases can be compound.

The dry ingredients – baking soda, salt, and flour – were mixed first

Paul, an Eagle Scout and varsity athlete, received the Outstanding Student award this year.

Improve Your WritingUse appositives and appositive phrases to rid your

writing of unnecessary words. Often two sentences can be combined into one by condensing the information from one sentence into an appositive.

The professor is a world-renowned expert on medieval history. He lectured today on the construction of castles during this period.

The professor, a world-renowned expert on medieval history, lectured today on the construction of castles during this period.

Improve Your Writing

Appositives or appositive phrases can begin with the word not in order to set up a dramatic contrast.

I thought you were my friends, not my enemies.

Appositive PhraseAppositives can occur as:

Sentence openersSubject-verb splitsSentence closers

Refer to page 2 in the Killgallon text

Practice 1 - Unscrambling

1. She struggled as usual to maintain her calm, composed, friendly bearing, a sort of mask she wore all over her body.

2. The judge, an old bowlegged fellow in a pale-blue sweater, had stopped examining the animals and was reading over some notes he had taken on the back of a dirty envelope.


3. With huge flaring nostrils, the tyrannosaur gave Baselton a smell, a long snuffling inhalation that fluttered Baselton’s trouser legs.

4. One of them, a slender young man with white hands, the son of a jeweler in Winesburg, talked continually of virginity.


5. In the late afternoon Will Henderson, owner and editor of the Eagle, went over to Tom Willy’s saloon.

6. The sound of the approaching grain teams was louder, thud of big hooves on hard ground, drag of breaks, and the jingle of trace chains.


7. Once Enoch Bentley, the older one of the boys, struck his father, old Tom Bentley, with the butt of a teamster’s whip, and the old man seemed likely to die.

8. Mr. Mick Malloy, tall, young secret gambler with devil-may-care eyes and a long humorous nose, became Mr. Malloy, tall cashier with a dignified face, a gentlemanly bank clerk, a nice sort of fellow.

Practice 2 - Imitating

1. By the podium scholarly Henrietta stood, intelligent and composed and smiling, president and valedictorian of the senior class.

2. Under the canopy they danced, beaming and affectionate and happy, bride and groom in their finery.

Share your imitated sentences.

Practice 3 - Combining

1. Near the statue was an obvious tourist, an oriental lady with a Kodak Camera.



2. Gone with the Wind, the movie with the most reissues, originated as a novel of the old South by an unglamorous and unknown authoress.



3. “Missouri” is a special casserole, a blend of potatoes and stewed tomatoes and hamburger.



4. We were far from our destination and were making good time on the interstate, but no time to squander, and Dad wouldn’t stop more than twice a day although we kids were itchy, and Mom, a shrewd, gentle arbitrator with Solomon’s mind, circumvented some flare-ups, and those she couldn’t she left to heaven.


Practice 4 - Expanding


Phrases

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