Another word for nonrestrictive is nonessential. Always bookend a nonrestrictive, appositive noun or phrase with commas in the middle of a sentence. If the noun or phrase is placed at the end of a sentence, it should be preceded by a comma.

Appositives are nouns or noun phrases that follow or come before a noun, and give more information about it. For example, “a golden retriever” is an appositive to “The puppy.” The word appositive is derived from the Latin phrases ad and positio meaning “near” and “placement.”

An appositive is a noun that immediately follows and renames another noun in order to clarify or classify it. Appositives are used to reduce wordiness, add detail, and add syntactic variety to a sentence. Simple Sentence: Mrs. Green is a tough grader.

An appositive noun or phrase is restrictive (also called essential) if it narrows down the word it modifies. A restrictive appositive noun or phrase is necessary to the meaning of the sentence. If you remove a restrictive appositive phrase, the sentence will sound like it is missing something.

commas

As long as we don’t overwhelm the reader with too much information at one time, a double or triple appositive can be an effective way of adding supplementary details to a sentence.

The definition of an appositive is a word or word group that defines or further identifies the noun or noun phrase preceding it. Rule: When an appositive is essential to the meaning of the noun it belongs to, don’t use commas. Explanation: Julie Minsky is necessary to help identify CEO, so no commas are used.

It’s also called a non-essential clause; you can remove it and still retain the meaning of the sentence.

A dependent clause, or subordinate clause, adds information to the sentence by acting as an adjective, adverb, or noun. Frequently, a dependent clause is introduced by a subordinate conjunction. In the appositive form, it adds a description of the book to the sentence.

To identify the difference between these two clauses, look for two types of signal words that often start a dependent clause: subordinating conjunctions and relative pronouns.

A dependent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb but does not express a complete thought. A dependent clause cannot be a sentence. Often a dependent clause is marked by a dependent marker word.

A COMPLEX SENTENCE has one dependent clause (headed by a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun ) joined to an independent clause.

Independent and Dependent Clauses: Coordination and Subordination

To combine two independent clauses (complete sentences), use a semicolon or a comma and conjunction. To attach a dependent clause, use a comma if it comes before the independent clause; use no comma if it comes after the independent clause, unless it is a “contrast word” (although, though, even though, whereas).

The seven coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.