yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Common and proper nouns | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

Hello, Garans!

I'd like to bring up the idea of the difference between a common and a proper noun. 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.

The 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, you would put it—you would—that's a proper noun.

So, here are the proper of proper nouns: proper nouns are always capitalized. 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, Dave.

More Articles

View All
Sounds That Make You Go Barf | Brain Games
I would love for you to give me your honest opinion about our new headphones. Would you like to try them out? Bring it! Let’s go try this one on. Throw them on, check it out. Pick it up, it’s so clear. Excellent! Oh, I’ll be jamming on the subway with th…
Worked example: over- and under-estimation of Riemann sums | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy
The continuous function ( g ) is graphed. We’re interested in the area under the curve between ( x ) equals negative seven and ( x ) equals seven, and we’re considering using Riemann sums to approximate it. So, this is the area that we’re thinking about i…
The Freaky Truth Of 1¢ Shiba Inu
What’s up, Grandma’s guys? Here, so I’ll admit I was not planning on making this video. But after getting hundreds of comments, DMs, emails, letters, and smoke signals asking for me to talk about the latest investment craze of Shiba Inu, I had to take a l…
How to Start Investing in Stocks in 2021? (w/ @Value-Investing)
Hey guys, welcome back to the channel! In this video, I’m super excited. I got to do a sit down, kind of quick 20-minute interview with Sven Carlin. Of course, you guys all know Sven from over on his YouTube channel. The topic of this conversation was how…
Elements and atomic number | Atoms, isotopes, and ions | High school chemistry | Khan Academy
We know that everything in the universe is composed of atoms, but not all atoms are the same. There are many different types of atoms called elements, each with a unique set of physical and chemical properties. Many elements are probably familiar to you; …
Acorn Thieves | America's National Parks
This Pine is the Central Bank and Trust of the acorn woodpecker, and every inch is studded with neatly arranged holes—the woodpecker’s safe deposit boxes. Finding the absolutely perfect little vault for every acorn can be quite the puzzle. Each hole has b…