Section 1
Proper and Common Nouns
Definition
A proper noun names a particular person, place, or thing. Proper nouns are capitalized. A common noun names a kind of person, place, or thing. A common noun is not capitalized, unless it begins a sentence or is part of a title.
Explanation
Think of it like this: a common noun is a general name, like 'student' or 'city.' There are many students and cities! But a proper noun is a specific name, like 'Isabella' or 'Chicago.' It’s like a name tag for one particular person or place, so it gets a capital letter to show it's special. Remember, if a proper name has multiple words, like Statue of Liberty, you capitalize the important ones. A cool trick: if you can easily put 'a' or 'the' in front of a word (like 'a state'), it's probably a common noun!
Examples
- one city in texas Dallas, Texas [Which word group correctly capitalizes the names of a city and state?]
- my Doctor Dr. Evans [Which one correctly capitalizes the name and title of a specific person?]
- the Pacific Ocean a big Ocean [The specific name of an ocean is a proper noun, but the general word 'ocean' is a common noun.]