In the sentence, Lincoln was a man of the people, we have two nouns referring to the same person, Lincoln and man, but they are different kinds of names. The word man is a name that may apply to any one of a million persons but the name Lincoln applies to one person only. Some nouns, then, represent a thing as being of a certain kind or class, without showing which particular one is meant. Other nouns are names given to designate a particular individual. These are called common and proper nouns.
60. A proper noun is a special name meant for only one person, place or thing.
All other nouns are common nouns.
A common noun is a name which belongs to all things of a class of objects.
Every proper noun should begin with a capital letter.
Indicate the proper nouns in the following list by drawing a line under the letters that ought to be capitals:
- king
- month
- city
- france
- dog
- virginia
- war
- wilson
- november
- doctor
- colonel
- napoleon
- chicago
- governor
- independence day
- freedom
- ocean
- atlantic ocean
- thanksgiving
- thanksgiving day
- uncle william
- thursday
- week
- general sherman
- karl marx
- union
- labor
- united mine workers
- newspaper
- the daily call
Write the special or proper names of several individuals in each of the following classes:—as city,—Chicago, New York, etc.
River, king, author, country, state, inventor, martyr, month, book, college.