There are many terms in English grammar which confuse students and one of them is, the difference between common and proper nouns. In plain words, a noun is a word that specifies a place, person, a thing, etc. Most of the thing (generally physical) that you see around fall in the category of a noun, e.g. a pen, phone, table, chair, laptop, bike, and so on.
How Can You Differentiate?
| Common Noun | A common noun refers to general places, people, or things. More specifically, a particular class or type of place, person, or thing. For instance, cities, students, cars, etc. Such words fall in broad general terms. |
For Example
The latest survey has included more cities from different countries than before.
The government has sanctioned the new layout of city planning having parks in all the major areas.
| Proper Noun | Proper nouns are specific and refer to one particular place, thing or person like Sachin Tendulkar, book- Discover of India or the place-Agra. Take a look at the following sentences for more clarity |
Forbes has included Hyderabad from India in its latest survey.
The Indian government has sanctioned the new layout of city planning having Mahatma Gandhi parks in Malviya Nagar and Mansarovar.
Now, there is another major difference through which you can easily identify them and that is capitalization.
Common nouns are not capitalized unless it is the first word in the sentence or part of a title.
For instance
Christopher Nolan got an award for his Movie. However, he received no award for his Documentaries. (Incorrect)
Christopher Nolan got an award for his movie. However, he received no award for his documentaries. (Correct)
Capitalization Makes All the Difference
On the contrary, irrespective of their place in a sentence proper nouns should always be capitalized simply they are names. The following sentence clears the idea.
Christopher Nolan got the empire award for interstellar. However, he received no award for memento documentary (Incorrect)
Christopher Nolan got the Empire award for Interstellar. However, he received no award for Memento documentary. (Correct)
Updated on 26-Apr-2022 06:32:34
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It's time to learn about proper nouns and common nouns. Are you ready? Great!
You probably already know what a noun is, but I'm still going to give you a little refresher. :) Nouns are words that name people, places, things, or ideas. There are many different types of nouns, and in this lesson, we'll go over two of them: common and proper.
Learning about common nouns will help you understand proper nouns, so let's focus on common nouns first, and then we'll see what the relationship is between them.
Common Nouns
Common nouns name people, places, things or ideas that are generic.
woman, city, dog
Notice that we don't know exactly which woman, city, or dog we're referring to.
Since these nouns aren't naming anything specific, they don't need to start with a capital letter unless they begin a sentence.
Proper Nouns
These are nouns that name specific people, places, things, or ideas.
Maya, Paris, Rover
Do you see how these are different? Maya is naming a specific woman, Paris is naming a specific city, and Rover is naming a specific dog.
Since these nouns are naming specific things, they always begin with a capital letter. Sometimes, they contain two or more important words.
Maya Angelou, Central Park Zoo, Pacific Ocean
If this is the case, both important words are capitalized, and the whole thing is still considered to be one noun even though it's made up of more than one word. These are called compound nouns. How about that?
Their Relationship
Every proper noun has a
common noun equivalent.
Proper --> Common
Kleenex --> tissue
Honda Odyssey --> van
V8 --> juice
However, not every common noun has a proper noun equivalent.
Common --> Proper
hand --> -
dirt --> -
space --> -
What Can They Do?
Both of these kinds of nouns can perform many jobs in sentences. Below, you'll find five noun jobs. (All of the nouns in these example sentences are common.)
These examples also include sentence diagrams. Sentence diagrams are pictures of sentences that basically make the grammar in the sentence visual. That sounds kind of strange, but it's true. Figuring out a sentence's diagrams is like solving a puzzle. Diagrams are a great way to learn grammar!
1. Subject The students happily studied grammar.
2. Direct Object The students happily studied grammar.
3. Indirect Object They taught their friends grammar.
4. Object of the Preposition Their friends smiled with glee.
5. Predicate Nominative They were grammar champions!
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