6. There are certain beings in the world that are called men, and certain other beings that are called horses, certain things that are called cities, and certain other things that are called rivers, hence the words man, horse, city, and river are names, or nouns. Since these nouns belong in common to a great many individuals, we call them common nouns.

7. On the other hand, every man, every horse, every city, and every river is likely to have a special name that distinguishes that particular man or horse or city or river from all others. Cæsar, Gypsy, Denver, and Penobscot are such names. Since these names belong to only one thing instead of to a class of things, we call them proper nouns.

8. A common noun is a name that belongs to a person, a place, or a thing because of its nature or qualities. A boat is entitled to the name boat because it has the characteristics of boats. A proper noun is a name conferred or given by some person, as when a certain boat was named by its owners Westernland.

It sometimes happens that the same name is conferred upon several objects. There is more than one city named Madison, more than one dog named Shep. Still these names are proper names, because they are names conferred upon a special city and a special dog to distinguish them from other cities and other dogs.

A proper noun always begins with a capital letter.

9. When a word denoting relationship, like father, mother, uncle, is used as the name of a particular person, it is a proper noun and should therefore begin with a capital letter; as, “Did Father say that Grandma and Auntie are coming?”

10. A title like Colonel, Judge, Duke, is a proper noun when it is used to denote a special person; as, “Thousands had gathered to welcome the Colonel home.” When such a word is the name of a class of persons, it is a common noun; as, “A new uniform was designed for the colonels.”

When a title is followed by another name, as, Colonel Bouck, Judge Gary, the two words are considered as one proper noun. In the same way, any group of two or more words forming one special name may be considered as one proper noun; as, Liberty Bell, Bay of Biscay, Mountains of the Moon. In such groups of words, each important word begins with a capital letter.

Note.—Names of qualities, conditions, or actions are often called abstract nouns; as, honesty, power, boyhood, the passing of the train, sound thinking, suspense.

Summary.—A common noun is a noun that belongs in common to each one of a class of persons, places, or things.

A proper noun is a name that has been conferred upon a particular person, place, or thing.

Every proper noun should begin with a capital letter.

Exercise.—Select all the nouns in the following sentences, and tell whether they are common or proper nouns. Give your reason in each case. Account for the capitalization.

1. The Bermudas are a cluster of small islands, lying as far south as Charleston, as far east as Nova Scotia.

2. Hotel Hamilton is a large, commodious building with many pillars and broad verandas.

3. The Tenedos is lying off Grassy Bay, making herself fine to receive the Princess Louise, and her jolly tars are in high spirits.

4. On the Sunday of the christening, Mrs. Howe and her children watched the merrymaking in Poverty Lane from a second story window.

5. Where was Prospero’s cell? Where slept the fair Miranda? Upon what bank sat Ferdinand when Ariel sang?

6. The Duluth High School is a fine structure built of red sandstone.

7. The Deliverance was a ship of eighty tons.

8. Old Lobo, or the King, as the Mexicans called him, was the gigantic leader of a remarkable pack of gray wolves, that had ravaged the Currumpaw Valley for a number of years.

9. About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator.

10.

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night

Sailed off in a wooden shoe.

11. Let us all go to the station Monday to meet Uncle.

12.

The cows were coming one by one;

Brindle, Ebony, Speckle, and Bess,

Shaking their horns in the evening wind.

13. Gunpowder had been a favorite steed of his master’s, the choleric Van Ripper, who was a furious rider.

14. Upstream, at the bend of the sluggish pool round the Peace Rock, stood Hathi, the wild elephant, with his sons, gaunt and gray in the moonlight.

15. In his eighth year Charles Lamb entered Christ’s Hospital, a famous school in London.

It is evident from this exercise that several different sorts of things, as hotels, streets, books, and ships, may have special names conferred upon them. Think of ten other things that may have special names, and write two names for each one.