Sign inProper and Common Nouns for intermediate learners
Did you know there are two kinds of noun: common nouns and proper nouns. Common nouns refer to general nouns and proper nouns refer to specific nouns.
What Are Proper and Common Nouns ?
In English nouns can be divided into two categories, one of which refers to general people, places, or things, while the other refers to specific people, places, or things. Take a look at the list below:
- Common Nouns
- Proper Nouns
Common Nouns
Common nouns are used to refer to general items or things, such as a cat, dog, chair, desk, computer, pencil, and so on. Pay attention to the following examples:
I saw a black
As you can see, the highlighted words refer to general things.
Julia wants to sleep on the
Common nouns are only capitalized when they appear at the beginning of the sentence. Look at the following examples:
My
Proper Nouns
Proper nouns are used to refer to specific people, animals, places, or things, such as names of people, streets, locations, pets, countries, days of the week, and months of the year. Proper nouns are
As you can see, the sentence is referring to a specific celebrity.
Where will you be on
Warning!
It's important to note that when addressing people by their job titles, proper nouns should be used and capitalized. Consider the following examples:
Good evening,
As you can see, the sentence is addressing the person by their job title.
The
Here, we are talking about a doctor and he/she is not specifically addressed.
Proper Nouns and 'The'
Generally, the definite article 'the' is not used with proper nouns, unless the article is part of the noun itself, or when referring to a specific organization or company. Pay attention to the following examples:
As you can see, 'the' is always added to 'United States of America'.
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Nouns are among the first lessons when studying a new language. In other words, we have to be able to name things first, then make sentences with them.
Compound Nouns
Compound nouns are formed when two or more words are joined together to create a new word that has an entirely new meaning.
Singular and Plural Nouns
Anything that is just one in quantity is singular. But what if there is more than one? Nouns that are two or more are called plurals! Simple, yes? Let's see!
Countable and Uncountable Nouns
It's important to know if a noun is countable or uncountable. This is going to help us to use the correct article. Let's learn more.
