Common Nouns and Proper Nouns
It’s time to learn about common nouns and proper nouns. Are you ready? Great!
| Common nouns name generic*
people, places, things, ideas |
Proper nouns name specific**
people, places, things, ideas |
| author | Leo Tolstoy |
| city | London |
| planet | Venus |
| language | Spanish |
Nouns are words that name people, places, things, or ideas. There are many different types of nouns, and in this lesson, we’ll go over two of them: common and proper.
Learning about common nouns will help you understand proper nouns, so let’s check them out and see what the relationship is between them.
Common Nouns
Common nouns name people, places, things or ideas that are generic*.
woman, city, dog
Notice that we don’t know exactly which woman, city, or dog we’re referring to.
Since these nouns aren’t naming anything specific, they don’t need to start with a capital letter unless they begin a sentence.
Proper Nouns
These are nouns that name specific** people, places, things, or ideas.
Maya, Paris, Rover
Do you see how these are different? Maya is naming a specific woman, Paris is naming a specific city, and Rover is naming a specific dog.
Since these nouns are naming specific things, they always begin with a capital letter. Sometimes, they contain two or more important words.
Maya Angelou, Central Park Zoo, Pacific Ocean
If this is the case, both important words are capitalized, and the whole thing is still considered to be one noun even though it’s made up of more than one word. These are called compound nouns. How about that?
Their Relationship
Every proper noun has a common noun equivalent.
Proper –> Common
- Kleenex –> tissue
- Austen –> author
- V8 –> juice
However, not every common noun has a proper noun equivalent.
Common –> Proper
hand –> –
dirt –> –
space –> –
| Common Nouns | Proper Nouns |
| man | Walt Disney, Leo Tolstoy |
| city | Tokyo, London |
| planet | Mars, Venus |
| language | English, Spanish |
| ocean | Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean |
| dog | Pekinese, Labrador |
What Can They Do?
Both of these kinds of nouns can perform many jobs in sentences. Below, you’ll find five noun jobs. (All of the nouns in these example sentences are common.)
1. Subject The students happily studied grammar.
2. Direct Object The students happily studied grammar.
3. Indirect Object They taught their friends grammar.
4. Object of the Preposition Their friends smiled with glee.
5. Predicate Nominative They were grammar champions!
*generic adjective [usually adjective noun]
You use generic to describe something that refers or relates to a whole class of similar things.
Parmesan is a generic term used to describe a family of hard Italian cheeses.
Synonyms: collective, general, common, wide
**specific adjective (PARTICULAR)
relating to one thing and not others; particular:
The virus attacks specific cells in the body.
The meeting is for the specific purpose of discussing the merger.
**specific adjective (EXACT)
clear and exact: The report makes specific recommendations.
Home ⎮ Nouns ⎮ Grammar lessons
AGH / Jan 2020