English
What is a proper noun?
Quick answer
A proper noun is the name of one particular person, place, day, month or thing, like Zainab, Paris or Tuesday. Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter.
In one sentence
A proper noun is the special name of one particular person, place or thing, and it starts with a capital letter.
Explained
The word girl could mean any girl in the world, so it is a common noun. The word Chioma is the name of one particular girl, so it is a proper noun. The same goes for country (common) and Brazil (proper), or dog (common) and Biscuit (proper, if that is your dog's name).
Proper nouns always start with a capital letter, wherever they sit in a sentence: On Saturday, Leo and Maya took the train to Edinburgh.
Things that are proper nouns in English:
- names of people and pets: Ahmed, Grandma Rose, Fluffy
- places: Kenya, Lagos, the Nile, Mount Everest, Oak Road
- days, months and festivals: Monday, April, Diwali, Christmas, Eid
- organisations and buildings: the United Nations, Riverside Primary School
- titles of books and films: The Lost Kite
- languages and nationalities: French, Nigerian, Spanish
Watch out: seasons (spring, winter) are common nouns in English and do not take capitals. This is also a good place to notice that languages differ. In French and Spanish, days and months are written in lower case, but in English they always have capitals.
If a proper noun is made of several words, the important words each get a capital: the Indian Ocean, the Natural History Museum.
globe
map
school
Examples
| Common noun | Proper noun |
|---|---|
| boy | Kwame |
| city | Toronto |
| month | September |
| mountain | Kilimanjaro |
| school | Hillside Academy |
- My cousin Ana was born in Lisbon in March.
- We read The Brave Snail on World Book Day.
Common mistakes
- Capitalising important-feeling common nouns. Dog, teacher and football stay lower case unless they start a sentence.
- Forgetting the capital on the pronoun I. It is not a noun, but it always takes a capital, as covered in capital letters.
- Writing seasons with capitals. We swim in summer, not Summer.
Quick quiz
Proper nouns
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Question 1 of 4
Which word is a proper noun?
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Related topics
Nouns
A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea, such as teacher, Lagos, pencil or happiness.
Capital letters
Use a capital letter at the start of every sentence, for names (proper nouns), for the word I, and at the start of direct speech and most titles.
Sentences
A sentence is a group of words that makes complete sense on its own. It starts with a capital letter, ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark, and usually has a verb.
Pronouns
A pronoun is a word that stands in for a noun so you don't have to repeat it, such as he, she, it, they, we, me, mine or who.
Adjectives
An adjective is a word that describes a noun, telling you what kind, which one or how many, like a huge elephant, a sour lemon or three red balloons.
Adverbs
An adverb gives more information about a verb, adjective or another adverb, telling how, when, where or how often, like slowly, tomorrow, outside or always.