Vocabulary improvement is a matter of learning new words well, and making sure that you have the ability to use them in context. Because words aren’t useful taken one by one, you need to be able to follow the rules of grammar as well. It’s no use knowing powerful vocabulary words unless you also know how to combine them in a clear and grammatical sentence. Your ability to communicate in writing and in spoken conversation depends on your knowledge of grammar as much as your knowledge of words. Fortunately, there are fewer rules of grammar than there are words in the English language, so once you’ve gotten them under your belt, you’ll be ready to focus on improving your vocabulary.

One grammatical term you might not be familiar with is apposition. This refers to a set of nouns and/or noun phrases that go together, one modifying (that is, describing or providing further information about) the other. An appositive is the noun phrase that is doing the modification. The word apposition has its roots in the Latin word ponere (“to place”) and prefix ad- (“near”). Here are some examples of apposition; the appositive is shown in boldface, and the noun or noun phrase it’s modifying is in italics.

The first speaker, a well-known historian, gave an overview of the development of the Mayan city-states in South America.

A people known for their sophisticated calendar system, the Maya were also innovative cultivators of land, with extensive irrigation systems.

Many people are talking about what might happen in December 2012, the month some have interpreted as the predicted end of the world according to the Mayan calendar.

The prophet Nostradamus also made several end-of-the-world predictions, though none have yet come true.

It’s not the end of the world if you haven’t been learning English grammar along with English vocabulary, but we encourage you to pay attention to grammatical rules so that you can get the most benefit out of your excellent vocabulary in the future. If there is a future, that is … *

* Just kidding!