Common nouns are general words like city, river or girl. Proper nouns are the special names of particular people, places and things. Proper nouns always start with a capital letter.
Use capitals for names (Amir), places (Cairo, the Nile), days (Tuesday), months (May), festivals (Diwali) and the titles of books (The Lost Kite).
Seasons like winter and summer do not usually need capitals, and nor do words like river or school unless they are part of a name.
Worked example
Add the capitals: “in june, ravi visited the river thames.”
- Start the sentence: In.
- Proper nouns: June, Ravi, River Thames.
Answer:In June, Ravi visited the River Thames.
Key words
- proper noun
- the special name of a person, place or thing
- common noun
- a general naming word
- title
- the name of a book or film
Practise this
New questions every time.
Common Core-referenced: L.2.2a