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Common Nouns _ Learn English
Common Nouns _ Learn English
com/search)
1. common nouns
2. proper nouns
There are MILLIONS of websites, and the word "website" is a common noun.
There is only ONE Google, and the word "Google" is a proper noun.
A proper noun is the name of something unique, like me (Joe). You can learn about proper nouns
here.
This page is about common nouns, which are all the "normal", general nouns. Simple examples of
common nouns are:
Common nouns are everywhere. Look around you now and you will see many common nouns:
door, window, tree, sky, cat, truck, road, computer, phone, bottle, ball, luggage, people, hair
Common nouns can be countable (bottle, dollar) or uncountable (milk, money); singular (desk, pencil)
or plural (desks, pencils); concrete (piano, bed) or abstract (music, happiness). And they follow all the
usual rules of countable/uncountable, singular/plural, concrete/abstract nouns. But there is ONE rule
that ALL common nouns need to follow: they don't start with a capital letter!
EnglishClub Tip
If a common noun comes at the beginning of a sentence, then it gets a capital letter—because all
sentences start with a capital letter.
If a common noun occurs in a heading (for example above, Common Nouns Don't Need
Capitals!), then it may get a capital letter (depending on editorial style).
If a common noun occurs in the title of a book, movie, song, album etc, then it usually gets a
capital letter (War and Peace, The Lord of the Rings, Night of the Living Dead, The Host, The
College Dropout).
Of course, if a common noun occurs in a heading that is all in capitals (e.g. newspaper headline),
then it is capitalized (MAN BITES DOG, CONTINENT CUT OFF BY FOG).
Here are some example sentences showing right and wrong use of capitalization:
Incorrect: In the 20th century, the UK had four Kings and one Queen.
Correct: In the 20th century, the UK had four kings and one queen.
And this table of common and proper nouns should show you the difference. Note that the common
nouns do not start with a capital, and the proper nouns do start with a capital:
car Mazda
writer Shakespeare
country Brazil
continent Asia
restaurant MacDonalds
city London
jeans Levis
Look at these examples of common nouns and some proper nouns in use. The common nouns are in
bold:
People should go to Mars this century.
Mini Quiz
1. I told Mary that someone had left a package for her. Select the common noun.
a) Mary b) package
a) Interview b) interview
3. How many times has Vladimir Putin been the Russian _______?
a) president to b) President
a) Snow to b) Scotland
See also: