WEBVTT

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- [Voiceover] Hello
grammarians, and hello Paige.

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- [Voiceover] Hi David.

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- [Voiceover] So today we're
going to be talking about

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the appositive, which is
just a monster of a word.

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I can tell you that from
my limited study of Latin

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it comes from ad positio,
which is "putting on",

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which doesn't really necessarily help.

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What is this thing?

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What is this device, how do we use it,

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and what does it have to do with commas?

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- [Voiceover] That is a great question.

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The definition itself is
also kind of confusing,

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but it'll make a lot of sense
when we see some examples.

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My older sister, Griselda, is
going to college in the fall.

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- [Voiceover] Okay, so, an appositive,

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what is the definition
of an appositive then?

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- [Voiceover] So it is a
noun phrase that clarifies

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or redefines its antecedent.

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- [Voiceover] And an antecedent
is just something that comes

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before, so what we're doing
here with Griselda is,

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we are redefining or clarifying
who my older sister is,

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so in order to do that,
we're putting it between

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these commas like so, and
we're just saying it again.

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My older sister, Griselda, is
going to college in the fall.

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- [Voiceover] Right.

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- [Voiceover] But it
doesn't always have to be

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in the middle like this, right.

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- [Voiceover] That's true,
it can be say, at the end.

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So, they stopped selling my
favorite snack, the Cookie Cat.

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- [Voiceover] I am so sorry.

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- [Voiceover] I know. It's so sad.

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- [Voiceover] So we've got
this apposition then at the end

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of the sentence, so my favorite
snack is being redefined

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or clarified by Cookie Cat.

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Or rather, Cookie Cat is clarifying

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or redefining my favorite snack.

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- [Voiceover] Right.

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I could just say, "They stopped
selling my favorite snack."

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- [Voiceover] That could just
be its own sentence right.

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- [Voiceover] Totally.

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- [Voiceover] They stopped
selling my favorite snack.

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My older sister is going
to college in the fall.

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This stuff isn't essential

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to the understanding of the sentence.

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- [Voiceover] Right, but if you don't know

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what my favorite snack
is, then it's helpful

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for me to say, the Cookie Cat.

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- [Voiceover] So you can use
them as in the first sentence,

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my older sister comma Griselda
comma is going to college

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in the fall, or you can use
it as in the second sentence,

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they stopped selling my favorite snack

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comma the Cookie Cat period.

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- [Voiceover] Right.

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You don't need another comma.

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- [Voiceover] Right.

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- [Voiceover] At the end.

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- [Voiceover] Let's change
that back into a comma.

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- [Voiceover] So this is
just another illustration

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of the separating power of
the comma, cuz we're using it

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to set off this explanatory,
clarifying element

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in the middle or at the
end of these sentences.

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- [Voiceover] Yeah, exactly,
that's what the comma does.

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Man, it seems like commas can do anything.

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- [Voiceover] Yeah,
it's pretty incredible.

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You know what else can do anything?

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- [Voiceover] What?

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- [Voiceover] The viewer, you the viewer,

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you can learn anything.

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That's the appositive and
how it relates to commas.

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David out.

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- [Voiceover] Paige out.