Appositives | Punctuation | Grammar | Khan Academy Video Lecture | Complete Course on English Grammar: Upgrade your Speaking & Listening - Personal Skills

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 and I can tell you
that from my limited study of Latin
right it comes from ad passe eto which
is like putting putting on which doesn't
really necessarily help what is this
thing like what is 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 in A+ what
is the definition of an A+ n 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 res Elda 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 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'm so
sorry
I know it's so sad so we've got we've
got this a position then at the end of
the sentence so my favorite snack is
being redefined or clarified by cookie
cat yeah or rather cookie cat is
clarifying or redefining my redefining
my favorite snack right I could just say
they stopped selling my favorite snack
and that would just that could just be
in some sentence really they stopped
selling my 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 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 kana 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 know you don't
need another comment 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 because
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 common 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 dave it out page out