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The bride looked radiant, a fairy tale princess.

The bride looked radiant — fairy tale princess.

She'd known him all her life, a great friend.

She'd known him all her life — great friend.

On these types of structures the phrase won't tag on the end of the sentence without a determiner as is the case with most supplemental phrases. Without the determiner (a,the) you need a dash or a colon.

What is the determiner doing to the phrase so that it can take the comma compared to a phrase that hasn't and needs a em-dash or stronger punctuation?

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  • I wouldn't say that any of those are fine. The first omits like and the second omits he is or he was. Further, I wouldn't say that the second is fine with a comma, either, since that would make it a comma splice.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Dec 13, 2018 at 5:29
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    I don't think the versions without the determiner work, whatever the punctuation.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Dec 13, 2018 at 9:22
  • this first one is a supplement and not a complete sentence (no verb) is it not.
    – bluebell1
    Commented Dec 14, 2018 at 21:49
  • In both cases an understood phrase is elided. like in the first example, he was in the second. The versions with the comma are OK in informal contexts, the versions with the em-dash don't work for me at all.
    – Barmar
    Commented Dec 17, 2018 at 19:56

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