Nouns: common and proper

 

Nouns are words which refer to people, places or things. We can divide them into two types – common nouns and proper nouns.

 

Examples of common nouns include:

• air, cat, happiness, music, newspaper.

 

We don’t usually write them with a capital letter, unless they come at the beginning of a sentence:

• I love music.

NOT: I love Music.

• Happiness is the most important thing.

 

Proper nouns are names of people, places or things and we always write them with a capital letter:

• My sister’s name is Sarah.
• The best day of the week is Friday.

 

Examples of proper nouns include:

• Australia, Monday, Rome, Russian, Sarah.

 

Proper nouns include:

 

a) The names of people, places or institutions:

• Sarah, Mr Stevens, the United States, Beijing, Cambridge University, the Hilton Hotel.

 

b) The names of the days of the week, months of the year and public holidays:

• Saturday, Thursday, June, September, Christmas, Thanksgiving.

(But not seasons: ‘summer’ not ‘Summer’.)

 

c) The names of nationalities and languages:

• Mexican, Swiss, English, Spanish.

 

d) The names of newspapers, magazines and the titles of books and movies:

• The Guardian, Vogue, Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick, Terminator, The Lord of the Rings.

 

Note: When the title has several words, we often write all the important words in capital letters. San Fransisco Three Men in a Boat

 

Take care with:

• I went for a walk in the park.
• I went for a walk in Central Park.

 

• I studied chemistry at university.
• I studied chemistry at London University.