common noun By Richard Nordquist Definition: A noun thats not the name of any particular person, place, or thing. A common noun represents one or all of the members of a class, and it can be preceded by the definite article ( the). Contrast with proper noun. As a general rule, a common noun does not begin with a capital letter unless it appears at the start of a sentence. Common nouns can be subdivided into count nouns and mass nouns . Semantically, common nouns can be classified as abstract nouns and concrete nouns . See also: Examples and Observations: Ads Topics More From Grammar & Composition More From About TOP ©2014 About. All rights reserved. Switch to Desktop Site Menu Grammar & Composition Exercise in Identifying Nouns Genericide Notes on Nouns Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat. (Mark Twain) America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy. (John Updike) Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open. (Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , by J.K. Rowling, 2000) Canada is a country whose main exports are hockey players and cold fronts. Our main imports are baseball players and acid rain. (Pierre Trudeau) Dr. Gregory House: Dr. House, I dont think weve met. Dr. Jaime Conway: Dr. Jamie Conway, Ive heard your name . Dr. Gregory House: Most people have. Its also a noun. (Hugh Laurie and Rob Benedict, Living the Dream. House M.D. , 2008) I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me. (Woody Allen) Europeans, like some Americans, drive on the right side of the road , except in England, where they drive on both sides of the road ; Italy, where they drive on the sidewalk ; and France, where if necessary they will follow you right into the hotel lobby. (Dave Barry) Modifiers and Common Nouns Common nouns can be modified by a variety of other parts of speech and types of phrase, including articles , demonstratives, possessives , adjectives, prepositional phrases, and relative clauses . The examples below show some of the possibilities: In each of these examples, the [italicized] common noun acts as the head of a noun phrase. (James R. Hurford, Grammar . Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994) How Proper Nouns Can Become Common Nouns It is possible . . . for proper nouns to lose their capital letter and come into the language as ordinary words. This process gives rise to a surprising number of new words. For example, trade names have given us filofax, playdough, velcro and walkman, to name just a few that have recently entered the language. Place names can also become common nouns. For example, the word jeans has its origin in the town of Genoa, where a type of heavy fabric (resembling denim) was once made; denim itself derives from Nîmes, the name of a city in southern France (originally serge de Nîmes serge [cloth] of Nîmes). When personal names convert to ordinary nouns, their behaviour is no different from that of other common nouns. (Kersti Börjars and Kate Burridge, Introducing English Grammar , 2nd ed. Hodder, 2010) these two short planks Franks tubby red-haired wife a bath with Rosie a tune that anyone can whistle See More About Related Articles glossary of grammatical and rhetorical terms Types of Nouns - Parts of Speech for ESL Italian Capitalization Rules Learn German: Intro to Nouns Video Ireland Basics - Common Place Names in Ireland 1000 Most Common Nouns in English in Alphabetical Order with Example Senten...
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 14:59:30 +0000
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