What Are Common Nouns?

When you think of a common noun, you want to focus on the common part. These are your
generic nouns within a sentence. For example, "The boy rode his bike." In this sentence, “boy”
and “bike” are generic nouns. You have generic nouns all around you, from your phone to your
friends. See a few different examples of generic nouns.

 table
 chair
 vacuum
 television
 man
 boy
 river
 cloud
 homework
 friendship

Using Common Nouns in a Sentence

Common nouns can be both singular and plural. Additionally, these nouns are only capitalized
when at the beginning of a sentence. Explore a few example sentences with common nouns.

1. The man walked down the road.

2. The car sat in the lot.
3. The bus pulled up to the stop.
4. We landed at the airport.
5. She went to her friend’s house.
6. His religion was important to him.
7. He rode the buggy to school.
8. They sang at the concert.
9. The woman danced in the street.
10. The baseball player threw the ball.

What Are Proper Nouns?

A proper noun functions in the same way as a common noun. It is a person, place, thing, or idea.
However, these types of nouns are capitalized.

Proper nouns include the days of the week, the months of the year, towns, cities, streets, states,
countries, and brands. Names of people and pets are all proper nouns, too! Notice how your first,
middle and last name are all capitalized: they are proper nouns because they indicate a specific,
particular person — you! Explore a few examples of other proper nouns.
  Jennifer
 Terrance
 Hollywood
 Crestwood St.
 Jupiter
 Panasonic
 Dell
 Muslim
 Monday
 November
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How to Use Proper Nouns in a Sentence

You use proper nouns in sentences the same way you use common nouns, but they retain their
capitalization whether or not they come at the beginning of a sentence. Explore what sentence
examples look like with proper nouns.

1. Terrance walked down Crestwood St.

2. The Toyota sat in the Grand Valley parking ramp.
3. The Metrobus pulled up to the Barber St. stop.
4. We landed at the Detroit International Airport.
5. She went to Shelby’s house.
6. Christianity was important to him.
7. He rode the Kawasaki Teryx to Meachum Junior High.
8. They sang at the Metallica concert.
9. Gladys danced down Swaffer Rd.
10. Mike Trout threw the ball.

Proper Nouns vs. Proper Adjectives

Now that you know that proper nouns are capitalized in a sentence, you might start thinking
every capitalized word is a proper noun. But it's not. You can also find proper adjectives too.
Whenever you see a capitalized letter, question whether or not it is a noun. Ask yourself: Is it a
person, place, thing, or idea?

For example, Asia in the sentence, "Asia is one of the world's seven continents," is a proper
noun. However, Asian in the sentence, "Many people like to eat Asian food," is a proper
adjective. Why? Because Asian is describing a type of food rather than a person, place, thing, or
idea.

The Relationship Between Common and Proper Nouns

It wouldn’t make sense to have sentences with only common nouns because you wouldn’t know
exactly what something was. However, you also wouldn’t want to put proper nouns in every
sentence. This is especially true if you don’t know who or what something is. So, common and
proper nouns are used together in sentences to make them more enjoyable and easier to
understand.

For example, it’s easy to say, “that building over there,” if you don't know the name of the
building. However, you can also say, “Grand Central Station over there.” Both sentences can
convey what you mean. The second one is just more specific.

Explore a few sentence examples using common and proper nouns.

 common noun - Mary liked to read a book every night before she went to bed.
 proper noun - Mary liked to read Harry Potter every night before she went to bed.
 common noun - My favorite thing to drink is soda.
 proper noun - My favorite thing to drink is Diet Coke.
 common noun - In my country, you cannot marry more than one person at a time.
 proper noun - In the United States, you cannot marry more than one person at a time.