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Common Noun & Proper Noun

A noun is a name of a thing, place, or person, e.g., chair, book, cup, room, doctor, New York, London.

There are two major types of nouns.

  1. Common Noun
  2. Proper Noun

  COMMON NOUN

A common noun is a name of a common or non-specific thing, place or person.

Examples: book, pen, car, room, garden, boy, girl, man, camera, month, day are some common nouns because each of them is a common thing, place or person.

A common noun refers to a thing as a unit of a group of common things. In such case, there is no need or intention to specify the thing as a particular thing. This is simply because such things are quite common.

Example 1.

He eats an apple daily.

In the above sentence, the noun ‘apple’ is a common noun. It simply represents apple as a unit of a group of common things (apples). We all know that an apple is a common fruit and can be referred to as a common noun. In the above sentence, the noun ‘apple’ refers to a common apple which means it can be any apple and not some specific apple.

Example 2.

She bought a camera.

In the above sentence, the noun ‘camera’ is a common noun. The noun ‘camera’ is used as a generalized term pointing a unit of common things (cameras). We know that camera is a common thing (or device) used for taking pictures. Therefore, the term ‘camera’ refers to a device commonly used for taking pictures. It can be any camera and not some specific camera.

  PROPER NOUN

Proper noun is a name of a particular or specific thing, person or place.

Examples: Oxford University, London, America, David, John, Limousine car, August, Sunday are some proper nouns because each of them is a name of a specific thing, place or person.

The above nouns do not refer to common things which exist in many numbers. Each of them refers to a specific thing, person or place. For instance, the word ‘city’ is a common noun because there can be many cities in a country, but the word ‘London’ is a proper noun because it is a name of a specific place which exists as an only place in the United Kingdom.

Similarly, the word ‘university’ is a common noun because there can be many universities in a country, but the word ‘Oxford University’ is a proper noun because it refers to a specific university.

Likewise, the word ‘month’ is a common noun because it can be any month, but the word ‘April’ is a proper noun because it now refers to a specific month (and not any month).

  Capitalization of the first letter of a proper noun

The first letter of a proper noun is always capitalized. The first letter of a common noun is not capitalized unless it is used at the start of a sentence.

Examples:

They live in London.
She helped David.
He studies at the University of Glasgow.
He will come here in August.
The meeting will be held on Friday.
The author of this book is John Stephen.
He says that Bill Gates is the richest person in the word.

  Rules for using the article “THE” before a Proper Noun

The article ‘the’ is sometimes used before a proper noun. The following rules guide us about when to use or not to use ‘the’ before a proper noun.

  1. Article ‘the’ is never used before the names of cities and countries, e.g. Paris, London, New York, Canada, America, Mexico. However, if a name refers a group of places (cities or states), the article ‘the’ is used before the name, e.g., the United States, the Netherlands, the Philippines.
  2. Article ‘the’ is not used before the names of universities when written as Yale University, Oxford University, Columbia University. However, if the name is written in the form containing the word ‘of’, then the article ‘the’ is used, e.g., the University of Oxford, the University of Toronto.
  3. Article ‘the’ is used before names composed of common noun as well as proper noun. This is because the common noun is specified by the proper noun in such case. e.g., the river Nile, the New York city, the BMW car etc.
  4. Article ‘the’ is used before the name of ocean, sea, river, dessert or forest (except lakes and fall), e.g. the Pacific Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Sahara, the Black Forests.
  5. Article “the” is used before the name of a geographical region and points on the globe, e.g., the Middle East, the West, the Equator, the North Pole.
  6. Article “the” is used before the names of organizations, e.g., the Association of Chartered Accountants, the World Health Organization.

 

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