Common Noun and Proper Noun

This lesson is about common nouns and proper nouns. Like we learned in the last lesson, a common noun is a person, a place, or a thing. These common nouns are just normal words, there’s really nothing special about them. In this sentence “The man is washing the bowls, plates, and forks”, all the nouns are very common words that we all use everyday.

A common noun has nothing unique, is nothing amazing, has no name, and no special thing about them.  They’re just everyday words like cup, bottle, shoe, baby, pain, hunger, store, and hospital. Nothing extra.

A proper noun is different, there is something special with a proper noun.  Proper nouns usually identify the name of a person or place. A common noun like “the boy” becomes a proper noun when it is changed to “Chris”.

“The Statue of Liberty is on Liberty Island in New York.” Can you see the proper nouns in that sentence? A clue is that they are names.  “Statue of Liberty”, “Liberty Island” and “New York” are all names for the place and things. Proper nouns usually have capital letters.

To practice, find the nouns in the sentences below.  Capitalize the proper nouns and underline the common nouns.

1. The country of india is colorful and interesting.
2. I think mr. chris is a funny teacher.
3. Did you see that dog jump over the nile river?
4. My family took a trip to see the great wall of china.
5. The clowns are scary but I like the circus.
6. South korea has big brands like lg and samsung.

“The country of India is colorful and interesting.” In this sentence, India is capitalized because it is the name of a country and a proper noun. Country is a common noun so it does not need a capital.

“I think Mr. Chris is a funny teacher.” “Mr. Chris” is all part of the name of a person so both words are a proper noun and need to have capital letters.  Teacher does not need to be capitalized because it is a common noun.

“Did you see that dog jump over the Nile River?” We don’t know it’s name, so “dog” is just a common noun that doesn’t need a capital letter but “Nile River” is a name so it does.

“My family took a trip to see the Great Wall of China.”  Both “family” and “trip” are common nouns.  All of the words for “Great Wall of China” are part of the name so they are a proper noun.

“The clowns are scary but I like the circus.” Neither of the nouns in this sentence, “clowns” and “circus”, are names so they are both common nouns that don’t need capitalization.

“South Korea has big brands like LG and Samsung.” This sentence has three proper nouns.  “South Korea” is the name of a country and both “LG” and “Samsung” are the names for companies.  “Brands” is a common noun.