Nouns are words which refer to people, places or things. We can divide them into two types – common nouns and proper nouns.
![Common and proper nouns](https://www.yourdictionary.com/images/definitions/lg/12698.proper-noun.jpg)
![Common and proper nouns](https://www.yourdictionary.com/images/definitions/lg/12698.proper-noun.jpg)
![Common and proper nouns](https://www.yourdictionary.com/images/definitions/lg/12698.proper-noun.jpg)
Common nouns
Common nouns are generic nouns. They name people, places, things or ideas that are not specific and not unique.
Examples of common nouns include:
- air, cat, happiness, music, newspaper.
- Would you like a cookie?
- There are a lot of important documents in the archives.
We don’t usually write them with a capital letter, unless they come at the beginning of a sentence:
- I love music. (NOT:
I loveMusic.) - Happiness is the most important thing.
Proper nouns
Proper nouns are names for unique people, places or things and we always write them with a capital letter:
- My sister’s name is Sarah.
- The best day of the week is Friday.
Examples of proper nouns include:
- Australia, Monday, Rome, Russian, Sarah.
Proper nouns include:
a) The names of people, places or institutions:
- Sarah, Mr Stevens, the United States, Beijing, Cambridge University, the Hilton Hotel.
b) The names of the days of the week, months of the year and public holidays:
- Saturday, Thursday, June, September, Christmas, Thanksgiving.
(But not seasons: ‘summer’ not ‘Summer’.)
c) The names of nationalities and languages:
- Mexican, Swiss, English, Spanish.
d) The names of newspapers, magazines and the titles of books and movies:
- The Guardian, Vogue, Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick, Terminator, The Lord of the Rings.
Note: When the title has several words, we often write all the important words in capital letters.
- San Fransisco
- Three Men in a Boat
Take care with:
- I went for a walk in the park.
- I went for a walk in Central Park.
- I studied chemistry at the university.
- I studied chemistry at London University.
Note that proper nouns are generally used without articles. – Agatha Christie wrote many books. – Let’s go to San Francisco. – He never goes anywhere without Sarah. However, there are several categories that are used with the definite article ‘the’. |
Watch this video from Learn English from KT explaining the difference between common and proper nouns and some capitalization rules:
See also: