Common Nouns

What are Common Nouns?

Common Nouns are nouns that refer to general people, places, or things.

We use them to name or identify that which is common among others. A noun is a Common Noun if it has specific nouns that fall under it.

examples:

city

university

book

movie

person

These nouns (city, university, book, movie, person) are general (common) nouns. When we use them in a sentence, we need an additional sentence or a follow-up question to get the specific noun (proper noun) for more information.

If someone says:

"I live in a city."

Listeners will most likely ask,

"Which city?"

Hence, Proper Nouns often come to answer that question, like

City

New York City

London

Manila

Tokyo

Delhi

These city names are Proper Nouns, identifying unique cities.