Appositives

Appositives

An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that repeats the meaning of or identifies another noun. Appositives can be used for emphasis or to provide additional information.

Only a lunatic, a complete nut, would believe his story.
Mrs. Mitchell, the president of the garden club, read the minutes.

An appositive should be a logical equivalent of the noun to which it refers. For instance, in the examples above, lunatic and complete nut have roughly the same meaning, and Mrs. Mitchell and the president of the garden club describe the same person.

Especially in long sentences, be careful not link nouns with appositives that describe completely different types of things.

Incorrect: The bus driver pulled into the diner’s parking lot, the only restaurant in the town.

You can correct a faulty appositive by rephrasing the sentence to eliminate it or by changing either the noun or the appositive so that they describe comparable items.

Correct: The bus driver pulled into the parking lot of the only restaurant in town.
Or: The bus driver pulled into the parking lot of the diner, the only restaurant in town.