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What are common nouns and proper nouns in English?

By: Erin Kuester Fri Sep 13 2024
English
Nouns

Common nouns and proper nouns are types of nouns in English. A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, idea, or action. But common nouns and proper nouns are a little bit different:

  • A common noun is a general label for something.

    e.g. cat, dog, house, person, restaurant

  • A proper noun is a specific name for something.

    e.g. Mississippi River, Rome, Harry Potter

    But there are more details to learn and examples to see! Read on to improve your English noun knowledge!

What are common nouns?

A common noun is a generic word for a person, place, or thing. When you use a common noun, you are referring to something by its category, not its individual name.

For example, dog is a common noun because it can be any dog – your dog, my dog, or any dog you see outside.

Various dogs are lined up in front of a hot pink wall. The dogs are of all different breeds (some mutts) but all of them are wearing collars and leashes.

What are proper nouns?

A proper noun names something or someone specifically. If we want to talk specifically about my dog, we give her a name: Pepper. Pepper is now a proper noun. A proper noun, like Pepper, will always refer to the same dog.

A very cute long-haired, black-and-tan dachshund sitting on a bench in front of a window and looking at the camera

What is the difference between a proper noun and a definite noun?

A definite noun usually has the form the + common noun. Definite nouns, like proper nouns, can refer to something specific, as in:

I like the dog on the left.

However, even though “the dog on the left” will point to a specific dog at one moment in time, if you line up the dogs in a different order, it will point to a different dog.

A proper noun like Pepper, on the other hand, will always point to the same dog, no matter where she sits in the line.

Check out our post on definite articles in English to learn more about using articles with common nouns. If you’re already confident about English articles, take your knowledge even further with this post on how to use articles with proper nouns!

What are the main grammar differences between common nouns and proper nouns?

In English, it’s important to understand common and proper nouns because:

  • Proper nouns are always capitalized.

    Paris

    paris

    Monday

    monday

    The Beatles

    the beatles

    Halloween

    halloween

    Common nouns are only capitalized at the start of a sentence.

  • There are different rules about using articles (a/an, the) before proper nouns and common nouns.

    • With a common noun, the (e.g. the, that, my, every,...) can change:

      I met the / a / her dog.

    • Proper nouns will either always have or always lack a definite article (the), and they do not take other determiners.

      Sarah always lacks a definite article:

      • I met Sarah.

      • I met the / a / her Sarah.

      The Eiffel Tower always has a definite article:

      • I visited Eiffel tower.

      • I visited the Eiffel Tower.

      • I visited an / that Eiffel Tower.

      Read our post on using articles with proper nouns to learn more!

What are some different types of common nouns?

Common nouns fall into three main categories: concrete, abstract, and collective. Learning about these three categories will help you understand what a common noun is.

Concrete nouns

See
An up-close photo of someone wearing glasses. It is dark and we can see lights reflected in the panes of the glasses.
Hear
A white woman with her hair in a pony tail smiles with her eyes closed as she touches an airpod in her left ear.
Touch
A tabby cat touches its paw to its owner's palm as they snuggle on the couch.
Taste
A woman in a white t-shirt with warm brown skin and long dark hair takes a bite out of a piece of handheld food at a busy gastropub.
Smell
A black woman in a sundress holds her nose up to a bunch of hot pink bougainvillea blossoms.

If you look around you right now, what are some nouns you can identify? In my room right now, I can identify a TV, a rug, a plant, a candle, a coffee cup, an apple, and a dog. These are all things that I can see, touch, hear, taste, or smell, so I know that they’re concrete nouns!

Abstract nouns

Abstract nouns are nouns that we cannot use our five senses for. Abstract nouns include emotions, qualities, events, and ideas. Abstract nouns can be a little more difficult to spot. It might take you some extra practice to feel confident with abstract nouns, but using abstract nouns is an easy way to take your English writing to the next level!

Emotions

anger

happiness

joy

love

Qualities

courage

honesty

patience

beauty

Events

birthday

marriage

childhood

future

Ideas

friendship

knowledge

education

culture

Do you know any other abstract nouns? Add them to the list!

Collective nouns

Collective nouns describe a group of people, animals, or things. For example, a team includes many individual people, but the team works together. To talk about a group together (the team) instead of the individual people or things (players) in that group, we use a collective noun. Let’s look at a few more collective nouns:

Individual noun
Collective noun

student

mom, dad, sister, brother

tree

flower

musician

class

family

forest

bouquet

band

Tip

In English, we have a lot of different collective nouns for types of animal groups. These are often specific to those animals. Here are a few examples: a flock of birds, a herd of goats, a pack of wolves, a swarm of insects.

What are some different types of proper nouns?

As we said earlier in the article, proper nouns name something specifically and they refer to the same specific thing in every context. Think about all your friends and family, the stores and restaurants you go to, or even the street that you live on. These people, places, and things all have unique names that separate them from all the other people, places, and things.

Type of proper noun
Examples

Names

Sarah, Juan, Ahmed, Maria

Places

New York City, China, Buckingham Palace

Days/months

Monday, Saturday, January, August, December

Titles of people

President Jefferson, Dr. Smith, Professor Lopez

Holidays

Christmas, Halloween, Hanukkah, Ramadan

Company names

Mango Languages, Google, McDonald’s, Starbucks

Titles of books/movies/art

Starry Night, Iron Man, The Hunger Games

Ideas/concepts

Buddhism, Impressionism, Catholicism

Here are a few examples of sentences with proper nouns:

  • I have a doctor’s appointment next Wednesday.

  • Agatha Christie is my favorite author.

  • After work, we’re going to see the new Spider-Man movie.

You see that using a proper noun makes the sentence clearer and more specific. Knowing when and where to use proper nouns in English will make your speaking and writing more accurate!

Important

Did you see that proper nouns can also be concrete, abstract, and collective?

  • Concrete proper nouns: Coca Cola, the Statue of Liberty

  • Abstract proper nouns: Easter, Confucianism

  • Collective proper nouns: Microsoft, the Beatles

Remember that the difference between common nouns and proper nouns isn’t about what kind of thing they point to, it is about whether you are naming that thing or describing what type of thing it is!

Summary

In this article, we reviewed the basics of common and proper nouns, including the different kinds of common nouns and proper nouns that we use in English. Here is what you should remember:

  • A common noun is a general label.

    • They are only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence

    • They can be used with a range of different articles and determiners

  • A proper noun is a specific name.

    • They are always capitalized

    • They either always have a definite article or always lack a definite article

Hopefully, now you feel more confident in your knowledge of nouns in English! Want some extra practice to test your noun skills? Check out these common and proper noun activities!

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