I have been trying to explain some things about apposition to one of my private students in response to an exam question that he showed me.

I don't have the question to hand but, the gist of the problem I'm having can be seen in these sentences.

David Cameron has recently visited India.

The Prime Minister of the UK has recently visited India.

David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the UK, has recently visited India.

David Cameron, Prime Minister of the UK, has recently visited India.

I have been trying to explain to him that the last sentence is perfectly good English, that it's OK here to leave out the "the".

In fact some googling shows the the version without "the" is around three times as common as the version with "the".

His school teacher is insisting that either "the" or "a" MUST be present in these appositional sctructures.* This is simply
not true but his questions are why can we leave it out and when can we leave it out.

I'm stumped for answers beyond "because we can" and "pretty much always".

Any suggestions?

(And of course David Cameron, a Prime Minister of the UK, has recently visited India. may be grammatically OK but certainly doesn't have the correct logical sense.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

I find the rules with "the" to be confusing. I certainly think either way sounds right.

We use the AP for our style guide, and when you use the acronym of an organization, like the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, you don't use "the" before AACN. I have gotten used to it their way, but I used to think it sounded odd without "the."