1.7 Parts of Speech - Part One
Common & Proper Nouns
Nouns are the heart of descriptive writing. A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea – and that’s what you are describing in descriptive writing. Nouns can be broken down into the following groups:
- common nouns
- proper nouns
- concrete nouns
- abstract nouns
- Most nouns are common nouns and refer to people, places, animals, and things.
Examples: student, cat, school, language - Proper nouns are the names of specific people, places, animals and things. They begin with a capital letter.
Examples: Naomi Silver, Squamish, University of Victoria, Halq'eméylem
REMEMBER to capitalize proper nouns! This makes English teachers happy. (Notice how English is capitalized – all languages and nationalities are capitalized.)