Common nouns

Common nouns are used to name more general people, places or things and they do not need to start with a capital unless they start the sentence or are part of a title.

For example, teacher is a common noun but you would name a specific teacher with a proper noun.k

My teacher is very friendly.

Ms. Owusu is very friendly.

‘Teacher’ is a common noun because it is a broad term and ‘Ms. Owusu’ is a proper noun because it is the name of a specific teacher.

Example 2:

I love to play with dogs.

I love to play with Marco, our dog.

‘Dogs’ is a common noun because it is more general but ‘Marco’ is the name of a specific dog and so it is a proper noun.

Example 3:

My sister studies biology at her university.

My sister studies Biology at the University of Ghana

In the first sentence, ‘university’ is a common noun because we are not speaking about a specific university. In the second sentence, we name the university and so it becomes a proper noun..