Common and proper nouns | The parts of speech | Grammar

- [Voiceover] Hello, grammarians.

I'd like to bring up the
idea of the difference

between a common and a proper noun.

So the difference between a common

and a proper noun is simply

the difference between
something with a name

and a more generic version of that thing.

I'll give you a couple of
examples right off the bat.

So speaking generally, I am from a city.

The specific city that
I'm from is Chicago.

I could talk about a frog generally,

but if I were speaking of a specific frog,

I would say Kermit.

The difference between a
common and a proper noun

is merely the difference
between a general thing,

so this side is more general,

and a specific thing.

It's a continuum.

So if you are speaking
of, let's see, a river,

any old river, that's a common noun,

but if you're talking
about a specific river,

and it's a named river here,

that would be the Nile, say.

You could talk about a mountain,

and that would be a common noun,

because there are many mountains,

but if you wanted to talk
about a specific mountain,

say Mount Kilimanjaro,

in Tanzania,

that's a proper noun.

So here are the properties
of proper nouns.

Proper nouns are always capitalized.

And that means that instead of using

a little letter A like that,

you would instead use a
big letter A like that.

Common nouns are only capitalized

if you find them at the
beginning of sentences.

So you might say,

"Mountains are my favorite."

But you would also say, "Kilimanjaro

"is my favorite

"mountain."

And that is a lowercase,
non-capitalized M,

as opposed to this one,
which is uppercase.

So that's the difference between common

and proper nouns.

If you're talking about something general,

it's a common noun.

If you're talking about
something specific,

it's a proper noun,

and the difference between them is

that you capitalize a proper noun.

You can learn anything.

David out.