Common and Proper Nouns

Every noun is either a common or proper noun. Fortunately, it's not difficult to tell the difference between them. It's important to know the difference because we need to CAPITALIZE proper nouns in English.

Let's review both of these types of nouns.

Common Nouns

Common nouns name general people, places, things, animals and ideas.

Some examples: table, chair, school, store, war, week, dog, communism.

Common nouns are not capitalized -- unless -- they are the first word in a sentence:

School starts at 9:00 in the morning.
We start school at 9:00 am. (NOT: We start School at 9:00 am.)

Proper Nouns

In contrast, proper nouns name specific people, places, things, animals and ideas.

This list show some different types of proper nouns and examples:

Type of Proper Noun	Example of Proper Noun
People	Lady Gaga, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sarah, Michael
Titles	Mr, Mrs, Professor, Dr, Sir, Madam, Queen
Institutions	United Nations, Coca-Cola, Museum of Modern Art
Buildings & Structures	The White House, Empire State Building
Places	Asia, New York, Atlantic Ocean, Mount Kilimanjaro
Religious Names	Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Torah, Bhagavad Gita
Historical Names	Roman Empire, Berlin Wall, World War I
Events & Festivals	Wimbledon, New Year's Eve, Miss Universe Pageant
Months / Days of the Week	February, December, Tuesday, Friday, Sunday

Relationship between Proper & Common Nouns

Every proper noun has a common noun equivalent. There is always a general way to describe something:

Common Noun	Proper Noun
city	New York, Athens, Cairo, Amman
country	Argentina, South Africa, Thailand
book	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
university	Oxford University, Kyoto University
month	September, December, April, June
religion	Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism
ocean, sea	Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean Sea
painting	Mona Lisa, The Starry Night, Primavera
tower	Eiffel Tower, Galata Tower, CNN Tower
person	Michael Jackson, President Obama, Shakira
dog	Snoopy, Scooby-Doo, Lassie, Pluto
team	AC Milan, Chicago Bulls, Dallas Cowboys

Can you clearly see now how common nouns are general and proper nouns describe something specific?

As you can see on the list, many of the proper nouns have more than one word. All of the words together represent one proper noun. For example, the words -- Pacific Ocean -- together describe one specific ocean.

Remember proper nouns are CAPITALIZED:

The first president of the United States was George Washington.
There is a gigantic monument dedicated to President Washington.
I am studying at the local university.
I am majoring in politics at Yale University. (A specific university)

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Common & proper nouns