Common Nouns

Common nouns aren’t just the ones you see every day -- it’s just the name for nouns that aren’t proper, like cities or titles. Learn how to write and use common nouns with our materials. We’ve got lots to help your student understand grammar and parts of speech, from worksheets and drills to games and activities, to lesson plans and articles for the adults.

One of the first elements of english that students will learn about is the noun. It is a necessary part of a complete sentence and represents the subject the sentence is about. Nouns themselves come in two categories, common and proper.

A noun refers to a person, place, animal, thing, or idea. While proper nouns describe a specific instance of a noun, common nouns refer to general items. While articles can be used to refer to a specific instance of a common noun, it is typically not a proper noun unless it is named. For example:

Common	Proper
teacher	Mrs. Stevenson
dog	Rover
restaurant	Applebee's
city	Cleveland
ocean	Atlantic Ocean

While proper nouns are always capitalized, common nouns are only capitalized when they begin a sentence. Common nouns must fall into at least one of the following categories:

• Abstract noun - things you cannot see or touch.
• Collective noun - groups
• Compound noun - nouns made up of more than one word
• Concrete noun - things you can see or touch
• Countable noun - things with singular and plural forms
• Non-countable noun - things that cannot be counted
• Gender-specific noun - things which are definitely male or female
• Verbal noun - nouns that represent actions

Teachers can use a variety of games and exercises to help students understand which nouns are common and which are proper. A simple way to help students distinguish between common and proper nouns is to ask, “Can there be more than one of these?” If the answer is yes, it is most likely a common noun. Using the resources provided above by Education.com may help teachers work with students and teach this concept.