Appositives | Punctuation | Grammar | Khan Academy

- [Voiceover] Hello
grammarians, and hello Paige.

- [Voiceover] Hi David.

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

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

I can tell you that from
my limited study of Latin

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

which doesn't really necessarily help.

What is this thing?

What is this device, how do we use it,

and what does it have to do with commas?

- [Voiceover] That is a great question.

The definition itself is
also kind of confusing,

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

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

- [Voiceover] Okay, so, an appositive,

what is the definition
of an appositive then?

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

or redefines its antecedent.

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

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

we are redefining or clarifying
who my older sister is,

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

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

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

- [Voiceover] Right.

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

in the middle like this, right.

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

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

- [Voiceover] I am so sorry.

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

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

of the sentence, so my favorite
snack is being redefined

or clarified by Cookie Cat.

Or rather, Cookie Cat is clarifying

or redefining my favorite snack.

- [Voiceover] Right.

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

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

- [Voiceover] Totally.

- [Voiceover] They stopped
selling my favorite snack.

My older sister is going
to college in the fall.

This stuff isn't essential

to the understanding of the sentence.

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

what my favorite snack
is, then it's helpful

for me to say, the Cookie Cat.

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

my older sister comma Griselda
comma 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.

- [Voiceover] Right.

You don't need another comma.

- [Voiceover] Right.

- [Voiceover] At the end.

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

- [Voiceover] So this is
just another illustration

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

to set off this explanatory,
clarifying element

in the middle or at the
end of these sentences.

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

Man, it seems like commas can do anything.

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

You know what else can do anything?

- [Voiceover] What?

- [Voiceover] The viewer, you the viewer,

you can learn anything.

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

David out.

- [Voiceover] Paige out.