What is a proper noun?
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Basics on the topic What is a proper noun?
Proper Nouns – Definition
Below, we will learn what is the definition of proper nouns and how to identify proper nouns, along with proper noun rules and proper noun examples. What does the term *proper noun mean? The proper noun meaning is similar to a common noun. A proper noun gives a special name to a common noun and always starts with a capital letter. Now that we know the proper noun definition, let’s take a look at the difference between common nouns and proper nouns.
Common Nouns and Proper Nouns
The definition of a proper noun is a little different from the definition of a common noun. A common noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. In case you forgot what's a proper noun, a proper noun gives a special name to a common noun and always starts with a capital letter. As you can see, they are closely related but different from each other. You may be wondering, are proper nouns always capitalised? In the next section, we will discuss the proper noun capitalisation rules.
Proper Nouns – Capitalisation
Do proper nouns always start with a capital letter? The answer is yes, proper noun words will always be capitalised. In order to know if you are looking at a sentence with a proper noun, it is important to know all types of proper nouns. What are all the proper nouns? Below is a list of all the different types:
| Category | Example |
|---|---|
| Names of people | Darlene |
| Titles | Lady / Lord ... |
| Names of places | Oregon |
| Calendar days & months | March, Tuesday |
| Holidays | Halloween |
| Brands & companies | Hershey’s |
| Other titles | The Hobbit |
In order to know the answer to questions like, “is a name a proper noun?”, and, “is a title a proper noun?” it is important to remember the different types of proper nouns. Next, we will see an example of a proper noun
Proper Nouns – Examples
The first painting Pip wrote a description for is pictured below. See if you can find an example of a proper noun he forgot to capitalise. Here’s a hint: there’s more than one!
Queen is a proper noun example because it is Bertha's title and it is at the beginning of the sentence, so it needs a capital ‘Q’.
Bertha is a proper noun example because it is the hippo's name, so it needs a capital ‘B’.
Finally, "National Ice Cream Day" is a proper noun example because it is a holiday, so it should also be capitalised.
Proper Nouns – Summary
Do you remember how to define a proper noun? A proper noun gives a special name to a common noun and always starts with a capital letter. It’s important to always follow the proper noun capitalisation rules when using proper noun examples in sentences.
Now that you’ve learned the proper noun definition and examples, it’s time to practise! On this website you will find proper noun activities and proper noun worksheets!
Frequently Asked Questions about Proper Nouns
Transcript What is a proper noun?
Pip is helping Koko prepare for her big debut at the art gallery. His job is to write a one-sentence description of Koko's paintings, but there's one problem, Pip didn't capitalise the proper nouns and the gallery is opening soon! Let's help Pip fix his mistakes so they're ready in time by learning, what is a proper noun? A noun, also known as a common noun, is a person, place, thing or idea. A proper noun gives a special name to a common noun and always starts with a capital letter no matter where it is in the sentence. There are seven types of proper nouns: names of people or characters such as Pip, titles of people, such as Queen Bertha, names of places, such as The Leaning Tower of Pisa, calendar days and months, such as Tuesday the thirty-first of October, holidays, such as New Year's Day, brands and company names, such as Tater Crisps and titles such as this painting called, ‘The Very Hungry Hippo’. Now that we know different types of proper nouns, let's look at Pip's descriptions to see if we can find the proper nouns he forgot to capitalise! This description says, ‘queen bertha treats herself on national ice cream day.’ What did Pip forget to capitalise in this sentence? ‘Queen’ is a proper noun because it is Bertha's title and it is at the beginning of the sentence, so it needs a capital Q. ‘Bertha’ is a proper noun because it is the hippo's name, so it needs a capital B. What else did Pip forget to capitalise? ‘National Ice Cream Day’ is a proper noun because it is a holiday, so it should also be capitalised. We have capitalised all the proper nouns that Pip forgot about! Let's check another description. It says, ‘Early on monday, the wallaby times newspaper delivered the story “kangaroo strike” to all of australia.’ What did Pip forget to capitalise in this sentence? ‘Monday' is a proper noun because it is a calendar day, so it needs a capital M. What else did Pip forget to capitalise in this sentence? ‘The Wallaby Times' is a proper noun because it is the name of the newspaper, so it should also be capitalised. 'Kangaroo Strike' is a proper noun because it is the title of the story or article and 'Australia' is a proper noun because it is the name of a place, so it should be capitalised. We helped fix all the descriptions just in time! Before we see how the art gallery turned out, let's summarise. Remember, a proper noun gives a special name to a common noun and always starts with a capital letter. There are seven types of proper nouns: names of people or characters, titles of people, names of places, calendar days and months, holidays, brands and company names and titles. "Koko, could you please come here for a second?" "Pip! What happened in here!?" "I made art."
What is a proper noun? exercise
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What are proper nouns?
HintsRemember that some of the types of proper nouns are names of people and places, such as: Paris.
Common nouns are non-specific places or things, such as ball, garden or dog.
Solution- All days of the week are proper nouns and need capital letters.
- Specific names of people or characters are proper nouns and need capital letters.
- Specific places such as cities, are proper nouns and need capital letters.
- Everyday objects, items or non-specific places are common nouns and should not be capitalised.
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Preparing for the exhibition.
HintsIs the missing word a name, title or day of the week? These are all proper nouns.
Remember that all proper nouns must start with a capital letter.
Verbs and verb forms do not have a capital letter, unless they are at the start of a sentence.
SolutionKoko had been creating the pieces of art for weeks. She started before Christmas and now it is almost Spring!
Thankfully, Pip is there to help her get everything ready. His favourite piece is the one of her majesty, Queen Bertha.
They decided to hold the exhibition on a Saturday as they thought this would be the busiest day of the week.
It was a good job too, as they had to spend all of Sunday cleaning up the mess!
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- art is not a proper noun, it is a common noun.
- Pip is a proper noun because it is a name and Queen is a proper noun as it is a title.
- Saturday is a proper noun as it is a name of a day of the week.
- cleaning is not a proper noun; it is a form of the verb, to clean.
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A letter from Pip.
HintsIf the word is part of a title, each word should be capitalised, for example: The Great Peach Pie might be a title of an art piece and therefore be capitalised, but peach and pie on their own would not be capitalised.
Have you checked that there are capital letters for the names of people or characters?
Remember that days and dates are both proper nouns.
SolutionHere is the version of the article with the errors highlighted.
- Names, dates, places and titles of people and things all need capital letters. Whilst 'hippo' is a common noun, in this case it is the title of the painting and therefore has a capital letter.
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Amazing art work.
HintsIn a title, all major words, including nouns, verbs and adjectives, should have a capital letter.
Do you know your upper and lower case letters? Look at these letters and decide whether they are upper case (capitals) or lower case.
SolutionThese are how the pieces of art work should have been labelled:
- The Very Hungry Hippo.
- Paris in the Autumn.
- The Leaning Tower of Pisa.
- Our Great Queen Bertha.
The images show the capital letters that are already correct highlighted in green, and the capital letters that were missing highlighted in pink.
Whilst 'hippo' is a common noun, in this case it is part of the title and therefore needs a capital letter. 'Very' and 'Hungry' would not usually have capital letters but here they are used as part of the title of artwork and are therefore capitalised.
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Proper and common nouns.
HintsLook at this reminder of the types of proper nouns.
If the noun type is not on the list, then it is a common noun.
SolutionHere are the correct common nouns and proper nouns.
Whilst city is a common noun, the name of the city (e.g. London) is a proper noun.
Whilst holiday is a common noun, type of holidays (e.g. Christmas or New Year) are proper nouns.
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Visitor reviews of the exhibition.
HintsMake sure that all proper nouns, including titles, names and days have capital letters.
All sentences must start with a capital letter.
Is 'name' a proper noun? Or is it only the actual name?
SolutionThree of the reviews were incorrectly punctuated. The letters that are lowercase but should have been written as capitals are shown in bold below:
- This was a great exhibition! I am definitely coming back on Monday with my friend!
- Wow! The Queen Bertha artwork was so cool. My friend Jill said it was her favourite!
- I came to see the exhibition on a school trip. My teacher, Miss Jones, loved the Hungry Hippo piece the most.
Above, Below & Beside
Simple Preposition Words
What Are Verbs?
Describing Words (Adjectives)
Comparative Adjectives
Synonyms
Synonyms — Let's Practise!
Opposite Words (Antonyms)
Antonyms — Let's Practise!
What are personal pronouns?
What are Personal Pronouns?— Let’s Practise!
Regular and Irregular Plural Nouns (-s, -es, -ies)
Irregular Plural Nouns
Pronoun Verb Agreement
Closely Related Verbs
What is a Preposition?
What is a proper noun?
Identifying Prepositional Phrases
What are Abstract Nouns?
Concrete Noun or Abstract Noun? — Let’s Practise!
Collective Nouns— Let’s Practise!
What are Possessive Pronouns?
What are Possessive Pronouns?— Let’s Practise!
Relative Pronouns: Who, Whose, Whom, Which and That
Closey Related Adjectives
Connecting Ideas with Conjunctions — Let's Practise!
Superlative Adverbs
Comparative Adverbs
Modal Verbs
Superlative Adjectives
