VOA日常语法--Appositives: Renaming Words and Other Terms

Imagine you want to improve your writing skills. Perhaps you would like to take an English test or use English in a business email.

Today on Everyday Grammar, we will talk about something that could help you: appositives.

We will explain the grammar rules behind appositives and demonstrate how to use them in sentences.

Let us begin with a few definitions.

Appositive definition

An appositive is a word or group of words that renames something else.

An appositive is often a noun or noun phrase that helps explain or identify another noun or a pronoun.

Take this sentence, for example:

My best friend, Ahmed, studies English literature.

The subject of the sentence is my best friend. The name Ahmed is an appositive. It adds information to the sentence.

What is important is that the sentence is grammatically correct without the appositive.

So, our example without the appositive would read:

My best friend studies English literature.

Another example

Now, let us consider a more complex example.

Imagine you are reading a crime novel. Perhaps the book has the following lines.

Police questioned the next suspect, the victim's ex-wife.

In this example, the victim's ex-wife is the appositive. The words give readers more information about the next suspect.

If the sentence did not have an appositive, it would have been written this way:

Police questioned the next suspect.

Appositives can introduce a sentence

Martha Kolln and Robert Funk wrote a famous book on English grammar. In it, they note that if an appositive renames the subject of a sentence, it can introduce the same sentence.

Kolln and Funk say the following description, by Michael D. Lemonick and Andrea Dorfman, is a good example of an introductory series of appositives. It is about epithets¹, or insulting terms, that people used to describe the Vikings of northern Europe.

"Ravagers, despoilers, pagans, heathens - such epithets pretty well summed up the Vikings for those who lived in the British Isles² during medieval times."The nouns ravagers, despoilers, pagans and heathens are all epithets, the subject of the sentence.

The writers could have left out the list of nouns. Instead, they could have begun the sentence simply with the words epithets such as, or such epithets.

Why are appositives important?

You might be asking yourself why this discussion is important.

The reason is this: using appositives correctly is one of the best ways to improve your writing style. Appositives can help writers change the rhythm or order of a sentence. In other words, appositives help make sentences more interesting.

Think back to our first example:

My best friend, Ahmed, studies English literature.

If you were to write the example as two separate sentences, it might be something like this:

My best friend studies English literature. My friend's name is Ahmed.

These sentences are grammatically correct. But they are repetitive. In other words, they are less interesting to read.

What can you do?

The next time you are reading, try to find examples of appositives. Ask yourself why the writer might have chosen to use them.

When you practice writing in English - perhaps for a test or business purposes - try to use appositives in certain places. They will help make your writing smooth and clear - if you use them correctly!

We will leave you with a famous example. In his book A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill wrote the following words about Britain's Queen Victoria.

High devotion to her royal task, domestic virtues⁴, evident sincerity⁵ of nature, a piercing and sometime disconcerting truthfulness⁶ - all these qualities of the Queen's had long impressed themselves upon the mind of her subjects.

Can you identify the appositive? Can you identify the subject of the sentence? Write to us in the Comments Section of our website.

I'm Anne Ball.

And I'm John Russell.

John Russell wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

Words in This Story

grammar - n. the study of words and their uses and relations in sentences

ex- prefix⁷ meaning former

introduce - v. to lead to or present

sum up - phrasal verb to describe or show the most important parts or qualities of (someone or something) in a brief or simple way

medieval - adj. of or relating to Europe's Middle Ages

practice - v. to work at repeatedly so as to become skilled

devotion - n. a feeling of strong love or loyalty⁸

virtue³ - n. morally good behavior

sincerity - n. having or showing true feelings that are expressed in an honest way

disconcerting - adj. unnerving or troubling; concerning

1 epithets   

n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He insulted me, using rude epithets. 他用粗话诅咒我。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He cursed me, using a lot of rude epithets. 他用上许多粗鲁的修饰词来诅咒我。 来自辞典例句

2 isles   

岛( isle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the geology of the British Isles 不列颠群岛的地质
• The boat left for the isles. 小船驶向那些小岛。

3 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。

4 virtues   

美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处

参考例句：

• Doctors often extol the virtues of eating less fat. 医生常常宣扬少吃脂肪的好处。
• She delivered a homily on the virtues of family life. 她进行了一场家庭生活美德方面的说教。

5 sincerity   

n.真诚，诚意；真实

参考例句：

• His sincerity added much more authority to the story.他的真诚更增加了故事的说服力。
• He tried hard to satisfy me of his sincerity.他竭力让我了解他的诚意。

6 truthfulness   

n. 符合实际

参考例句：

• Among her many virtues are loyalty, courage, and truthfulness. 她有许多的美德，如忠诚、勇敢和诚实。
• I fired a hundred questions concerning the truthfulness of his statement. 我对他发言的真实性提出一连串质问。

7 prefix   

n.前缀；vt.加…作为前缀；置于前面

参考例句：

• We prefix "Mr."to a man's name.我们在男士的姓名前加“先生”。
• In the word "unimportant ","un-" is a prefix.在单词“unimportant”中“un”是前缀。

8 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。