Difference between Common Noun and Proper Noun
What is a Noun?
A noun is the name of a particular thing, place, person, animal, idea, quality, or feeling. Each sentence contains one or more than one noun. Nouns can be considered the building blocks of a sentence.
Examples of nouns:
Things- bed, television, pen, pencil, books, mobile, watch, etc.
Places- India, Delhi, America, London, school, temple, badminton court, etc.
People- man, woman, girl, boy, Alex, Henry, Amitabh, The President, etc.
Animals- dog, lion, bird, cat, Shark, fish, parrot, pigeon, etc.
Ideas- happy, sad, fear, strength, plan, success, failure, etc.
Qualities- beauty, ugly, intelligence, dedication, elegance, confidence, etc.
Nouns in Sentences
- I have a car. (car is a noun)
- I want to buy a chair. (chair is a noun)
- Honesty is the best policy. (Honesty is a noun)
- I visited the temple today. (the temple is a noun)
- I eat a banana daily. (banana is a noun)
- You should drink milk every day. (milk is a noun)
Types of Noun
There are eight different types of a noun:
- Proper Noun
- Common Noun
- Abstract Noun
- Collective Noun
- Material Noun
- Countable Noun
- Uncountable Noun
- Concrete Noun
The four common types of nouns are Common Noun, Proper Noun, Collective Noun, and Abstract Noun.
What is a Proper Noun?
A Proper Noun can be defined as a figure of speech that represents the name of a particular person, thing, or place. Proper Nouns should always begin with a capital letter. Some examples are India, Alex, Delhi, London, Henry, January, Monday, etc.
Examples of Proper Nouns in sentences:
- I live in Delhi. (Delhi is a proper noun)
- India is my country. (India is a proper noun)
- My name is Lily. (Lily is a proper noun)
- Her dog's name is Maddy. (Maddy is a proper noun)
- The Prime Minister of India is Narendra Modi. (India and Narendra Modi are proper nouns)
- Elly loves flowers. (Elly is a proper noun)
- Christmas is celebrated on 25th December. (Christmas and December are proper nouns)
What is a Common Noun?
A Common Noun is a figure of speech that represents a group of alike objects. It is used to represent anything in general or non-specific. In contrast with proper nouns, Common Nouns are only capitalized when used at the start of a sentence. Common Nouns include table, chair, bedroom, flower, man, woman, fan, book, paper, etc.
Common Nouns in Sentences:
- I love flowers. (flower is a common noun)
- I want to buy a book. (book is a common noun)
- She is waiting for you at the restaurant. (restaurant is a common noun)
- I'm going to watch a movie today. (movie is a common noun)
- Where is the washroom? (washroom is a common noun)
- I saw a girl yesterday. (girl is a proper noun)
- You broke the table. (table is a proper noun)
How to identify Common Nouns?
Common Nouns are generally used to represent non-specific terms (anything which is not specific). Consider the sentence: 'I saw a girl yesterday.' The girl is a common noun in this sentence because it does not represent anybody specifically. It represents a class of humans. Now, consider the sentence: 'I saw Meera yesterday.' Here, Meera is a proper noun because it represents a particular person.
- Professions- doctor, engineer, teacher, writer, author, etc. are common nouns.
- People- mother, father, daughter, boy, girl, man, woman, etc. are all common nouns.
- Quality or Ideas- happy, sad, love, compassion, peace, war, etc. also comes under common nouns.
- Things- table, chair, wall, door, books, pen, etc. are also common nouns
How to Identify Proper Nouns?
Proper nouns are easy to figure out because they always start with a capital letter, no matter where they are positioned in a sentence. Proper Nouns are nouns used to define something specific; thus, they are always easy to identify. Proper Nouns include the name of a particular person, place, thing, month, festival, day, etc.
Here is the list of 10 examples, differentiated as common and proper nouns.
Common Noun |
Proper Noun |
girl |
Meera |
star |
Sun |
city |
Bangalore |
school |
Delhi Public School |
actor |
Shah Rukh Khan |
month |
June |
day |
Friday |
car |
Honda |
festival |
Christmas |
country |
India |
Difference between Common Noun & Proper Noun
Common Noun |
Proper Noun |
It is a type of noun that represents a group of the same type of objects. |
It is a noun that represents the name of a particular person, thing, or place. |
It is used to represent something in general or non-specific. |
It is used to represent something specific. |
Common Nouns are only capitalized when they are at the beginning of a sentence, or we can say common nouns do not begin with a capital letter. |
Proper Nouns are capitalized no matter where they are placed in a sentence. Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter. |
General people, general places or general things, etc all come under common nouns. |
The name of a particular person, place, thing, month, festival, day, etc. comes under proper noun. |
A Few examples of common nouns are table, chair, book, boy, girl, bedroom, school, college, etc. |
A Few examples of proper nouns are India, January, Christmas, Monday, Alex, Meera, etc. |
Examples of common nouns in sentences: |
Examples of proper nouns in sentences: |
I want to buy a drink. |
I want to buy Coke. |
I met a girl yesterday. |
I met Tina yesterday. |
The stars are shining bright in the sky. |
The Sun is shining bright in the sky. |
I'm going to watch a movie. |
I'm going to watch Infinity Wars. |
I will be waiting for you at the I. |
I will be waiting for you at McDonalds. |
I love my country. |
I love India. |
Somebody stole my book. |
Somebody stole my Mathematics book. |
There is a party at my home today. |
There is a party on Monday at my house. |
|