Appositive Practice for January 16 and 17, 2024 (Date Change!)

I am positive you will find great uses for the appositive!!

Directions: Each section below contains a different way of practicing the placement of an appositive in a sentence. Remember that the goal of writing is to be clear and concise; if we need to add ideas, they need to be important enough to make our sentences more interesting!! The appositive can do the job!

Part One.
Locate and circle the appositive in each sentence below.

1. I went shopping with my friend Jen, someone I have known for years.
2. It's great to work in Somerville, a busy city north of Boston.
3. Selena, the hostess at the restaurant, could not find our reservations.
4. The restaurant, Trattoria Amalfi, was packed with many customers that evening.
5. My friend dropped his cellphone, the latest iPhone, and the screen cracked.
6. I ordered my favorite dish, butternut squash ravioli!

Part Two.
Now add your own appositive to each sentence. Be sure the details you create work well with the meaning of your sentence. Also, be careful NOT to begin the appositive with a preposition! The appositive itself functions as a noun!!

1. My sister bought me a new laptop, _a_______________________, for Christmas.
2. We need to go to that new restaurant, ____________________________, when you get out of work tonight.
3. Is that car, _the__________________________, yours?
4. She wanted to buy food for Dino, _her_________________________.
5. Do you shop at that store, ______________________________.

Note: You can check to see if you have created an appositive by taking away the noun it renames and seeing if the sentence still makes sense.  Here is an example below:

Example: My dad, a well-known Boston surgeon, was awarded a prize for being such a good doctor.

Let's see if I can take away the noun dad and replace it with the appositive in bold print. It would read:
A well-known Boston surgeon was awarded a prize for being such a good doctor.

Let's also see if the sentence makes sense without the appositive.
My dad was awarded a prize for being such a good doctor.

Note: The appositive in the sentence above is just another way to say my dad. It provides more detail about this person without using more adjectives. 

More practice will follow in the days to come, but I hope you are getting a good idea of how the appositive, a part of speech that functions as a noun, can make your sentences come alive!

Bonus: Can you find the appositive in the sentence we just read?

In addition to today's work, we will be going to our archives for last January and February (2023) for more practice and review work!
​Enjoy!!