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NOUN AND OTHER PARTS OF SPEECHAdjectiveHe is poor.NounThe poor are not always dishonest.VerbShow me your photo.NounWe enjoyed a good show in the cinema.AdverbHe lives here.NounIt’s a long way from here.ConjunctionHe is poor but honest.NounBut me no buts.InfinitiveI want to see it.NounTo see is to believe.GerundWalking is a good exercise.I like catching fish very much.PhraseLife is not a bed of roses.Life is a walking shadow.ClauseI know what he wants.What he has done will save his family.http://grammar24.blogspot.com/2011/08/noun-in-apposition.htmlOn this resource what is the distinction with there 'clause example'. Aren't they all clauses on the right hand side apart from (  conjunction examples).I like catching fish very much/ I know what he wants.   (Are these not both clauses?Life is not a bed of roses.Life is a walking shadow.Are these not sentences not phrases also.

GPY · Accepted Answer

This web page is poorly laid out and poorly explained. The parts of the sentences that are being referred to are not highlighted, leaving the reader to try to figure out what is meant. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

I visited this page. The first sentence is misleading.

When one noun follows another to describe it, the noun which follows is said to be in apposition to the noun which comes before it.

A noun in apposition does not so much describe as rename, clarify, or act as a substitute.
Also, it should be a noun phrase, not simply a noun.

Mrs. Guinevere Jones, the eldest sister of Mr. Alexander Smith, was elected president of the Grenoble Ladies Society.

Note that the noun phrase underlined above is in apposition to the subject (Mrs. Guinevere Jones) and can be substituted for that subject leaving the sentence completely intact. That is the essence of noun phrases being in apposition to another noun phrase. EIther one can be substituted in the grammatical position. They may even be reversed. All four sentences are grammatical. The first two have a noun phrase that has an equivalent meaning to the subject.

1. Mrs. Guinevere Jones, the eldest sister of Mr. Alexander Smith, was elected president of the Grenoble Ladies Society.
2. The eldest sister of Mr. Alexander Smith, Mrs. Guinevere Jones, was elected president of the Grenoble Ladies Society.
3. Mrs. Guinevere Jones was elected president of the Grenoble Ladies Society.
4. The eldest sister of Mr. Alexander Smith was elected president of the Grenoble Ladies Society.

In my opinion, that "definition" above will confuse the learner who is going to proceed to studying essential (defining, restrictive) clauses versus nonessential (non defining, unrestrictive) relative clauses.

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