Question

Are my sentences of appositive and appositive phrases correct?
we planted a small tree, brought by my father, in the park and called it a "family tree."
The reunion site, in the empty room, took us hours to clean up.

Answer 1

Your first sentence has an appositive, but the second sentence does not.

The prepositional phrase, "in the empty room," is used as an adjective. To make it an appositive, omit the words "in the."

Answer 2

Ooops -- Thanks to Writeacher -- I just realized I goofed.

The first sentence doesn't have an appositive either. The participial phrase, "brought by my father," is not an appositive.

How do you think you can write an appositive in that sentence?

Answer 3

I taught appositives as "side-by-side nouns" -- that is, there need to be two nouns and any modifiers right next to each other, separated only by commas (not conjunctions or other connecting words).

Here are some examples; appositive is underlined, and the noun it's in apposition to is in bold:

My <b>brother</b>, <u>a Sears repairman</u>, lives in the California desert.

That television <b>program</b>, <u>a cop drama</u>, is absolutely fascinating.

That big <b>tree</b>, <u>a sequoia</u>, is one of the oldest living things on earth.

The reunion <b>site</b>, <u>an empty room</u>, took us hours to clean up.