Appositives | Punctuation | Grammar | Khan Academy

Hello grammarians and hello Paige. Hi David!

So today we're going to be talking about the appositive, which is just a monster of a word, right? Uh, I can tell you that from my limited study of Latin, right? It comes from "ad positio," which is like putting on, which doesn't really necessarily help. What is this thing? Like, what is this device? How do we use it, and what does it have to do with commas? That is a great question!

So the definition itself is also kind of confusing, but it'll make a lot of sense when we see some examples. Okay, my older sister Griselda is going to college in the fall.

Okay, so an appositive, what is the definition of an appositive then? So it is a noun phrase that clarifies or redefines its antecedent. An antecedent is just something that comes before. So what we're doing here with Griselda is we are redefining or clarifying who my older sister is. And so, in order to do that, we're putting it between these commas, like so. Voop voop!

And we're just saying it again: My older sister Griselda is going to college in the fall. Right? Uh, but it doesn't always have to be in the middle like this. Right, that's true! It can be, say, at the end.

So they stopped selling my favorite snack, the Cookie Cat. I am so sorry! I know it's so sad! So we've got this apposition then at the end of the sentence. So my favorite snack is being redefined or clarified by Cookie Cat.

Yeah, exactly! Or rather, Cookie Cat is clarifying or redefining my favorite snack. Right? I could just say they stopped selling my favorite snack, and that could just be its own sentence. Right? Totally! They stopped selling my favorite snack.

My older sister is going to college in the fall! Like, the stuff isn't essential to the understanding of the sentence, right? But if you know, don't know what my favorite snack is, then it's kind of helpful to say, or it's helpful for me to say, the Cookie Cat.

So you can use them, as in the first sentence: My older sister, comma Griselda, comma, is going to college in the fall. Or you can use it as in the second sentence: They stopped selling my favorite snack, comma the Cookie Cat, period. Right? You don't need another comma right at the end.

Let's change that back into a comma. So this is just another illustration of the separating power of the comma, 'cause we're using it to set off this explanatory clarifying element in the middle or at the end of these sentences.

Yeah, exactly! That's what the comma does. Man, it seems like commas can do like anything!

Yeah, it's pretty incredible. You know what else can do anything?

What?

The viewer! You, the viewer! You can learn anything! That's the appositive and how it relates to commas.

David out. Paige out.