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The Proper Noun
The Proper Noun
Nouns name people, places, and things. Every noun can further be classified as
common or proper. A proper noun has two distinctive features: 1) it will name a
specific [usually a one-of-a-kind] item, and 2) it will begin with a capital letter no
matter where it occurs in a sentence.
beagle Snoopy
cookie Oreo
city Orlando
Read the following sentences. Notice the difference between the common and
proper nouns.
Tina offered Antonio one of her mother's homemade oatmeal cookies but
only an Oreo would satisfy his sweet tooth.
Charlie had wanted an easy teacher for his composition class, but he got
Mrs. Hacket, whose short temper and unreasonable demands made the
semester a torture.
Nouns name people, places, and things. Every noun can further be classified as
common or proper. A common noun names general items.
Go into the kitchen. What do you see? Refrigerator, stove, microwave, window,
curtain, coffee maker, wallpaper, spatula, sink, faucet, plate--all of these things
are common nouns.
Leave the house. Where can you go? Mall, restaurant, school, post office,
backyard, beach, Laundromat, supermarket, gas station--all of these places are
common nouns.
The important thing to remember is that common nouns are general names.
Thus, they are not capitalized unless they begin a sentence or are part of a title.
Proper nouns, those that name specific things, are the class of nouns that
require capitalization.
waiter Simon
jeans Levi's
country Australia
Read the following sentences. Notice the difference between the common and
proper nouns.
Although there are five other chairs in the living room, everyone in Jim's
family fights to sit in the puffy new Lazy Boy.
Harriet threw the stale cucumber sandwich in the trash can and fantasized
about a Big Mac dripping with special sauce.
Because we like an attentive waiter, we always ask for Simon when we eat
at Mama Rizoni's Pizzeria.
Nouns name people, places, and things. Collective nouns, a special class,
name groups [things] composed of members [usually people]. Check out the
chart below:
Collective Nouns
Each noun from the list above is a single thing. That thing, however, is made up
of more than one person. You cannot have a committee, team, or family of
one; you need at least two people who compose the unit.
Because more than one person makes up each of these collective nouns--and
because people behave as both herd animals and solitary creatures--collective
nouns can be either singular or plural, depending on context. In writing, this
double status often causes agreement errors. How do you tell if a collective
noun is singular or plural? What verbs and pronouns do you use with it?
Here is the key: Imagine a flock of pigeons pecking at birdseed on the ground.
Suddenly, a cat races out of the bushes. What do the pigeons do? They fly off
as a unit in an attempt to escape the predator, wheeling through the sky in the
same direction.
People often behave in the same manner, doing one thing in unison with the
other members of their group. When these people are part of a collective noun,
that noun becomes singular. As a result, you must use singular verbs and
pronouns with it. Read the following examples.
Every afternoon the baseball team follows its coach out to the hot field to
practice.
The jury agrees that the state prosecutors did not provide enough
evidence, so its verdict is not guilty.
Now imagine five house cats in the living room. Do the cats do the same thing at
the same time? Not this group! One cat might be sleeping on top of the warm
television. Another might be grooming itself on the sofa. A third animal might be
perched on the windowsill, watching the world outside. There is one group of
animals, but the members of that group are all doing their own thing.
After the three-hour practice under the brutal sun, the team shower,
change into their street clothes, and head to their air-conditioned homes.
Team = plural; shower, change, head = plural verbs; their = a plural pronoun.
After the long exam, the class finish their research papers on famous
mathematicians at home.
The jury disagree about the guilt of the accused and have told the judge
that they are hopelessly deadlocked.
Jury = plural; disagree, have told = plural verbs; they = a plural pronoun.
Nouns name people, places, and things. One class of nouns is abstract. Your
five senses cannot detect this group of nouns: you cannot see them, cannot
hear them, cannot smell them, cannot taste them, and cannot feel them.
When Joseph dived into the violent water to rescue a drowning puppy, his
bravery amazed the crowd of fishermen standing on the dock.
Most nouns are concrete, not abstract. Concrete nouns register on your five
senses. Here is an example:
Joseph cuddled the wet puppy under his warm jacket.
Puppy is an example of a concrete noun. You can see a puppy, stroke its fur,
smell its Milk-Bone breath, and listen to it whine. You can even taste the puppy if
you don't mind pulling dog hair off your tongue afterwards. Because a puppy will
register on all five senses, puppy is a concrete noun.
dedication teacher
curiosity cat
trust airplane