Common and Proper Nouns

Common and Proper

Common nouns are just what they sound like: common. These nouns are general items, such as tree, watch, teacher, and farm. Common nouns are the most widely used throughout grammar.

On the other hand, Proper nouns are specific and one of a kind. They express specific names, places, and things. Mr. Harrison is a proper noun, defining one man. A school is a common noun, whereas Mayville Middle School refers to a specific school. Proper nouns are ALWAYS capitalized; common nouns are lowercase except when they are the first word in a sentence.

For his project, Dylan is studying Galileo and the telescope.

·         Project is common, referring to a general project

·         Dylan is proper, referring to a specific boy. (notice the capitalization)

·         Galileo is proper, referring to a specific scientist. (again, capitalized)

·         Telescope is common, referring to a general telescope