Question

Read the sentence.
Aurora, a city on the Fox River, was the first town to install electric street lights. Which word or phrase is an appositive or an appositive phrase in the sentence? A)a city on the Fox River
B)electric street lights
C)Aurora
D)the first town

Answer 1

The answer is a.  An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that renames another noun right beside it.  "a city on the Fox River" is renaming Aurora.  Therefore, the right answer is a. Good luck.

Answer 2

To provide more information or to identify a word, a noun or pronoun is placed with another noun or pronoun, referred to as an appositive phrase.

An appositive phrase may be nonessential or essential.

In essential appositive, the words are not set off with commas.

Whereas, nonessential appositive refers to the addition of meaning in a sentence which is already clear and is set off with commas.

Hence, appositive phrase is "a city on the Fox River" as it modifies the noun Aurora.