Proper Nouns

A proper noun is a specific name used for an individual person, place, or thing. Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter, regardless of where they appear in a sentence. They are used to distinguish one item from a group of similar items. For example, in the sentence "I visited Paris last summer," "Paris" is a proper noun because it refers to a specific city.

Examples of Proper Nouns:

• New York City
• Mount Everest
• Harry Potter
• Amazon River
• Disneyland

Study Guide for Proper Nouns

Identifying Proper Nouns

When identifying proper nouns, look for words that refer to specific people, places, or things. Remember that proper nouns always begin with a capital letter.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

A common mistake is to capitalize common nouns when they should not be capitalized. For example, "I went to the store" does not require capitalization because "store" is a common noun. However, "I went to Walmart" requires capitalization because "Walmart" is a proper noun.

Using Proper Nouns in Writing

When writing, be sure to capitalize all proper nouns. This helps to give specific names the importance and attention they deserve.

Practice Exercise

Identify the proper nouns in the following sentences:

1. I live in austin, texas.
2. We visited the grand canyon last summer.
3. My favorite book is the lord of the rings.

Now you can try to identify the proper nouns in the sentences. Good luck!

[Proper Nouns] Related Worksheets and Study Guides:

• NounsEnglish Language Arts • First Grade
• Capitalization/PunctuationEnglish Language Arts • Third Grade
• Syntactic/Semantic CuesEnglish Language Arts • Fourth Grade
• Capitalizing IEnglish Language Arts • First Grade
• Proper NounsEnglish Language Arts • Second Grade