Common and Proper Nouns for Kids Grammar for Elementary Students

Today, we're talking about common and proper nouns! But before we learn that, we have to know: What is noun? Well, noun is word that is person, place, or thing. In other words, if word is person, place, or thing, it is noun! You may not realize this, but there are two types of nouns. There are common nouns and there are proper nouns. And what's exciting is, by the end of this video, you're going to know the difference! And you're going to be able to spot them and figure out which kind of noun noun is! So first, common nouns! Well, common nouns name type of person, place, or thing. So what about proper nouns? Well, proper nouns name specific person, place, or thing. So common noun names type of person, place, or thing. And proper nouns name specific person, place, or thing! Now, let's show you with some examples! Here's our first example! We love these! What's the common noun for this? dog! This is dog! "Dog" is the common noun. Now, let's say this dog's name is Fido. "Fido" is the proper noun for this dog, because that's the specific name of this dog, is Fido! "Dog" is the type of thing that this is. So, it's the common noun. The common noun is "dog". The proper noun for this, is "Fido"! Here's another example! Here is girl. girl. And "girl" would be the common noun, because common noun is type of person, place, or thing. But, this girl's name is Rachel. "Rachel" would be the proper noun, because it's specific person, place, or things. So the common noun is "girl", the proper noun is "Rachel". Here's another one! Here we have picture of park. "Park" would be the common noun. It's the type of person, place, or thing! Now, let's say this park is called Smithfield Park. "Smithfield Park" would be the proper noun! It is the specific person, place, or thing that this is! It is park, that's the common noun. And the proper noun is "Smithfield Park"! Remember, common nouns name type of person, place, or thing. Proper nouns name specific person, place, or thing! Let's look at this example! This is called stadium. The common noun for this is "stadium". But let's say the specific name of this stadium is York Stadium. "York Stadium" would be the proper noun. It's the specific person, place, or thing. The common noun is "stadium". It's the type of thing that this is. "York Stadium" is the proper noun because it's the specific thing that this is. Let's try this one! What is this? What would be the common noun? Yeah! Computer! "Computer" would be the common noun. Now let's say this specific computer is Platinum 10. That means that the proper noun for this would be "Platinum 10". The common noun is the type of person, place, or thing which is "computer". And the proper noun is the specific one, which is the "Platinum 10". Now, did you notice that all of the proper nouns start with capital letter and all of the common nouns start with lowercase letter? Isn't that interesting? Let's look back, okay? So, "dog" is common and it's lowercase and "Fido" is the proper noun and it's uppercase! It's capital letter! Let's see. And "girl" is the common noun here and "Rachel" is the proper noun. And "Rachel" starts with the capital letter! Proper nouns always start with capital letter. wow! And "park" is the common noun here. And it starts with lowercase letter! And "Smithfield Park" is the proper noun. And so because it's proper noun, it starts with capital letter! And let's look back at this one too! The common noun here is "stadium" And the proper noun is "York Stadium". The proper noun, it starts with capital letters! York Stadium! They are capitalized because it's proper noun! What about this one again? Okay, the common noun is "computer". So it has lowercase letter, but the proper noun is "Platinum 10", which is capitalized because it's the proper noun. Let's look at two more examples! Okay, this is picture of what? farm! Yeah! "Farm" is the common noun. And notice, it's got lowercase letter. It's the common noun! It's the type of thing that this is! Now, the name of the farm is "Johnsonburg Ranch", so that's the proper noun! It's the specific farm that it is! Johnsonburg Ranch! And notice how it's capitalized because it's proper noun! "Johnsonburg Ranch" is the proper noun and it's capitalized! It's the specific thing that it is! Okay, now this is our final one! The common noun of this.... this is map of city! "City" would be the common noun! And notice the lowercase letter. It's the type of person, place, or thing. It's got little letter. It's the common noun! Now, let's say this city is Denver. "Denver" would be the proper noun! And notice it's an uppercase (or capital) letter because it's the proper noun! It's the specific thing that it is, it's Denver. To review, if word is person, place, or thing, it is noun. And there are two types of nouns! Common nouns, which name type of person, place, or thing. And proper nouns which name specific person, place, or thing. And of course, all of the proper nouns start with capital letter! And all of the common nouns start with lowercase letter! Well, now we're going to play quick game to see how much you've learned! We're going to call this game, Common or Proper? It's where we will share noun with you, and you tell us whether you think it's common or proper! Here's the first one! Sock! Is this common or proper noun? Is it common or is it proper? Yeah! It's common noun! It's type of thing, so we know it's common noun. But also, it starts with lowercase letter. "sock" is common noun! Let's try this one! Mrs. Barrow Is this common or proper noun Yes! It's proper noun! It's specific person! We also have the clue that it has the capital letters! They start with capital letters! The capital and the capital tell us that this is proper noun! Mrs. Barrow is specific person! This is proper noun! Great job! How about this one? Chicago. Is this common or proper noun? Yeah! It's proper! And we have two clues. The first one is that it's specific place, Chicago! And also, what's the other clue? Yeah! It starts with capital letter! We know that "Chicago" is proper noun! Great job! How about this noun: teacher This might be little tricky. Is this common or proper noun? Yeah! It's common noun! It's type of person. Also, what's the other clue that tells us that this is common noun? The lowercase letter tells us this is common noun! Let's try this one now! Box! Is "box" common or proper? What type of noun is this? Yes! It's common! It's type of thing! And also, we know that it starts with lowercase letter! That tells us that it's common. Here's our last one! Lincoln Elementary School. Is this common or proper noun? Is it common or is it proper? Yes! It's proper noun! It's specific place. And we also have the clue of the capital letters that it starts with. Thank you so much for playing that! And, you did great job! Well that's it! Common and proper nouns! It's wonderful! Now you know the difference! If somebody asks you, "Hey, is this noun common or proper?" Now you know! Now you know!