Hi, I'm Ashley and this is Mia! Today, we're going to talk about two different kinds of nouns:
common and proper. Are you ready? Let's go!
Nouns can name a person, like a boy or girl, astronaut or firefighter,
or maybe even your friend named George. Nouns can name a place, like your home,
or an office, a playground, or a city like San Francisco. Finally, nouns can name things
like a toy, or a computer, a book, a flower, or a cat named Fluffy!
Did you know how some nouns like astronaut, playground, or book begin with lowercase letters,
while other nouns like George, San Francisco, and Fluffy begin with capital letters?
That's because there are two different types of nouns: common nouns and proper nouns.
Common nouns are nouns that name a general person, place, or thing, like girl, dog, or city.
These nouns could refer to any girl, any dog, any city. They are not specific names. Common nouns
begin with a lowercase letter — unless, of course, they're placed at the beginning of a sentence.
Proper nouns are the specific names of a person, place, or thing, like if we name the girl Shelby,
or call the dog Bingo, or say "hey, I recognize that city! That's Paris!"
Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter.
Let's find the nouns in these sentences and decide whether they are common or proper nouns.
The first sentence says: "Our new bird is so cute." Can you find the noun in that sentence?
That's right, the noun is bird! Bird is a common noun because it refers to something general,
not specific. It could be any bird! Let's look at the next sentence: "We named him Kirby." What
is the noun here? Right, it's Kirby, and I bet you already know that Kirby is a proper noun.
It's the name of a specific bird, and like all proper nouns, it begins with a capital letter.
Let's see if we can come up with some common improper nouns together.
The word month is a common noun. We could be talking about any month.
What's a specific month we can name that would be a proper noun? There are 12 to choose from!
I'm going to pick January. January is a proper noun, so it begins with a capital letter.
Next, Canada is a proper noun. What's a common noun that could tell us what Canada is?
I think 'country' is a good choice. We capitalize Canada, but we don't capitalize
country because it's a common noun. We could be talking about any country! Let's try one
more. The word friend is a common noun, so it begins with a lowercase letter. However,
if we name a specific friend, we use a proper noun. What's your friend's name? Mine's Mia!
Let's review what we've learned. We know that a noun is a word that names a person,
place, or thing, and now we know that some nouns are common nouns.
Common nouns are general, they could be any one of a group of people, places, or things.
Unless they are at the beginning of a sentence, common nouns always begin with a lowercase letter.
We also know that there are proper nouns.
Proper nouns are the names we give to specific people, places, and things. Remember,
proper nouns always begin with a capital letter, and also remember to always be clever!