The cardinal directions (north, east, south, west) are common nouns in most cases. The current archbishop of Canterbury is Archbishop Justin Welby. Examples: Capitalization of jobs and titlesThe current president of the United States is President Biden. In a similar way, nouns that act as titles (e.g., “president,” “archbishop,” “professor”) are capitalized only when they’re used as part of the name of someone holding that title.

Examples: Capitalization of family rolesMy dad always told me to be more self-confident. But when they’re used directly as a name, without any articles or other determiners, they become proper and gain capitalization. Common nouns that can become proper nounsĬommon nouns can often become proper (i.e., gain capitalization) when they are used as a name, or as part of a name.įor example, nouns designating family roles, such as “dad,” are common in most cases. World War II was the largest military conflict in history. They are always capitalized and typically not modified by articles, determiners, or adjectives.Įxamples: Common and proper nounsMy grandmother’s name is Delilah.īill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft.

Proper nouns are the names of specific individuals, things, places, companies, etc.

They are only capitalized at the start of a sentence, and they can be modified by articles, determiners, and adjectives.

Common nouns are general: they usually name classes of things, people, and places rather than specific things, people, and places.

What is common noun