Lesson 134 - Parts of the Sentence - Nouns of Address

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Nouns or nominatives of address are the persons or things to which you are speaking. They are set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma or commas, may have modifiers, and are not related to the rest of the sentence grammatically. You can remove them and a complete sentence remains. They may be first, last or in the middle of the sentence. 

 

Examples: 

John, where are you going? 

Where are you going, John? 

Where, John, are you going?

An appositive is a word or group of words that identifies or renames the noun or pronoun that it follows. It is set off by commas unless closely tied to the word that it identifies or renames. ("Closely tied" means that it is needed to identify the word.) 

 

Examples: 

My son Carl is a medical technician. (no commas) 

Badger, our dog with a missing leg, has a love for cats. (commas needed)

We must be sure to not confuse nouns of address with appositives since they are both set off with commas.

Instructions: Find the verbs, subjects, predicate nominatives, direct objects, appositive, and nouns of address in these sentences and tell whether the verb is transitive active (ta), transitive passive (tp), intransitive linking (il), or intransitive complete (ic).

1. Sam, where is that car, the Volvo?

2. Joe, that woman, Miss Clayson, is a famous newscaster.

3. Mr. Smith, our sponsor, is upset with our advertising, Helen.

4. Kids, I want you to meet our new neighbor, Ann Wise.

5. Everyone, we will watch the television program, "Memories."

--For answers scroll down.

Answers:

1. is = verb (ic), car = subject, Volvo = appositive, Sam = noun of address

2. is = verb (il), woman = subject, newscaster = predicate nominative, Miss Clayson = appositive, Joe = noun of address

3. is upset = verb (tp), Mr. Smith = subject, sponsor = appositive, Helen = noun of address

4. want = verb (ta), I = subject, you = direct object, Ann Wise = appositive, Kids = noun of address

5. will watch = verb (ta), we = subject, program = direct object, Everyone = noun of address, "Memories" = appositive

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