English Grammar Drills - Mark Lester 2009

Proper and common nouns
1 Nouns
Part 1 Noun Phrases

There are two basic types of nouns in English: proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are the names of specific individuals, places, and things; common nouns are the names of classes of persons, places, and things.

For example, Ruth Ginsburg, Texas, and Microsoft Corporation are proper nouns. Woman, state, and company are common nouns. The most obvious distinction between proper nouns and common nouns is that proper nouns are capitalized. Compare the proper nouns and correspond­ing common nouns in the following list:

Proper noun   Common noun

Gregory House  doctor

Florence Nightingale nurse

Mayo Clinic   hospital

Mississippi   river

Atlanta    city

Washington Post  newspaper

The Tempest   play

Exercise 1.1

The following pairs of nouns contain one uncapitalized proper noun and a related common noun. Put the two nouns in the correct columns as in the list above and capitalize the proper noun.

       Proper noun Common noun

movie, star wars    Star Wars movie

1. hamlet, play

2. neighborhood, soho

3. car, ford

4. ocean, atlantic

5. everest, mountain

6. actor, harrison ford

7. dixie, song

8. ship, titanic

9. hotel, the ritz

10. planet, mercury

From this point on, we will focus only on common nouns.