One of the main features that make us special as human beings is our distinctive names which form our identities. This feature extends to inanimate objects as well as help in being specific in communication. This brings us to the concept of proper nouns.
What are Proper Nouns?
Proper nouns are nouns that refer to specific persons or objects. They are nouns that serve to distinguish persons and objects by giving them unique names by which they can be identified.
Observe the following:
a. John is a good guy.
In the example above, "John", is a proper noun. This is because it specifies the individual being referred to in the sentence who is also a male human being.
If the sentence read something more generic as:
b. The boy is a good guy.
It would be grammatical because it has applied the syntactic rules in forming the sentence, however, the information it communicates would lack precision. This is because it does not enlighten us on who exactly is being referred to. We do know that a male human being is the subject being addressed, but we do not know who this person is and this is what makes proper nouns so important. They help us identify persons and objects as distinctive entities not as part of a generalized group.
Proper nouns help with specifying quite a number of categories of nouns including: persons, places, schools, industries, foods, etc.,.
Persons: Proper nouns help in specifying individuals.
Observe the following:
a. Mary is a hardworking and jovial person.
b. Amanda has a lovely smile.
c. Derrick sees good in everything.
Places: Proper nouns help in specifying locations.
Observe the following:
a. Tampa, Florida is a nice place.
b. Nigeria has one of the largest population in the world.
c. Saudi Arabia is a popular Arabic country.
Schools: Proper nouns help in specifying educational institutions.
Observe the following:
a. Cambridge is a prestigious institution.
b. Harvard has produced a lot of intellectually sound individuals.
c. Oxford University is quite distinguished among popular universities.
Industries: Proper nouns help in specifying various industries.
Observe the following:
a. Iphone is an expensive brand.
b. McDonald's has been a go-to franchise for years.
c. Netflix is fast replacing TV stations.
Foods: Proper nouns help in specifying delicacies and fruits worldwide.
Observe the following:
a. Rice has to be an international food.
b. Garri is a popular food in Nigeria.
c. Avocados taste better when smeared on bread.
Did you notice a regular pattern in all the examples above? That's right! All proper nouns used in the examples had their first letters capitalized. This is one feature that distinguishes proper nouns from other nouns like common nouns, concrete nouns, Emphatic nouns, etc.,. Now it is important that everytime you make use of a proper noun in writing, you capitalize the first letter of the word to show it identifies or specifies a person, object or even sn abstraction. Abstraction refers to things that can only be conceives in the mind such as emotions, ideas, feelings, etc.,.
Even your pets are not left out on this. Since we name our pets be it a dog, cat, rabbit, horse, tiger, etc., which makes it easier for us to identify them, we also capitalize the first letter of our pets names.
Observe the following:
a. Spiky is a very obedient dog I got in Vietnam for my twenty fifth birthday.
b. Sheila is surprisingly not as troublesome as most orange cats.
c. Mayson has to be the fastest horse I have ever seen in my life.
Also, proper nouns usually take extra words with them typically identified as appellations. This is usually the case with proper nouns that refer to persons and these extra words that accompany them are titles, or nicknames associates with the persons in question. As a result of the association, such nouns are capitalized along with the proper nouns.
Observe the following:
a. Henry The Third was quite a ruler.
b. Prince Williams is an interesting person.
So proper nouns are nouns that refer to specific persons, objects, places, institutions, etc.,. They help in distinguishing nouns from general grouping making it easier to achieve precision in communication. We capitalize the first letter of a proper noun to show that it identifies s specific entity. Understanding when and how to use proper nouns will make you better experienced at writing in English.
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