Are my sentences of appositive and appositive phrases correct?
we planted a small tree, brought by my father, in the park and called it a "family tree."
The reunion site, in the empty room, took us hours to clean up.
Your first sentence has an appositive, but the second sentence does not.
The prepositional phrase, "in the empty room," is used as an adjective. To make it an appositive, omit the words "in the."
Ooops -- Thanks to Writeacher -- I just realized I goofed.
The first sentence doesn't have an appositive either. The participial phrase, "brought by my father," is not an appositive.
How do you think you can write an appositive in that sentence?
I taught appositives as "side-by-side nouns" -- that is, there need to be two nouns and any modifiers right next to each other, separated only by commas (not conjunctions or other connecting words).
Here are some examples; appositive is underlined, and the noun it's in apposition to is in bold:
My brother, a Sears repairman, lives in the California desert.
That television program, a cop drama, is absolutely fascinating.
That big tree, a sequoia, is one of the oldest living things on earth.
The reunion site, an empty room, took us hours to clean up.
Yes, your sentences are correct and both contain appositives and appositive phrases.
In the first sentence:
- The appositive phrase "brought by my father" provides additional information about the small tree.
- The appositive phrase is set off by commas on both sides: "brought by my father".
In the second sentence:
- The appositive phrase "in the empty room" gives more detail about the reunion site.
- The appositive phrase is also set off by commas on both sides: "in the empty room".
To identify appositives and appositive phrases in a sentence, you can follow these steps:
1. Look for a noun or pronoun that provides more information or renames another noun.
2. The appositive phrase usually appears right next to the noun it modifies.
3. The appositive phrase is often set off by commas, but not always.
In your sentences, you have correctly used commas to set off the appositive phrases and seamlessly integrated them into the sentences. Well done!