The Sentence: The Appositive

The appositive is a sentence function used when we want to repeat the subject.

The two children, Tom and Kate, went to the library.

The subject: two children; the appositive: Tom and Kate.

When we state the subject in the sentence then repeat in more detail we are using an appositive.

Mary, my neighbor, is very lovely.

The subject: Mary; the appositive:  my neighbor.

The appositive is often used with the pronouns: I, you, he, she, they, we, it, who and whoever.

Three of us from school - Ben, Daniel and I - are going out for hamburgers.
The band, we who are on stage, plays once a week.

The appositive phrase is the very similar but acts more of a description of the subject.

The two children, with dirt on their faces, went to the library.

The subject: two children; now the appositive describes them as; with dirt on their faces. 


It's not terribly important to know the appositive for English communication, but it is a cool grammar point to know and now you can impress your friends at your next cocktail party!

Please comment or email me your appositive examples on this blog or at chromatic.english@gmail.com.

Happy Learning!

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