Proper nouns: examples. Nouns are proper and nominal

Each person daily uses several hundred nouns in his speech. However, not everyone will be able to answer the question of which category belongs to a particular word: to the proper names or to the common nouns, and whether there is a difference between them. And meanwhile, from these simple knowledge depends not only written literacy, but also the ability to correctly understand what has been read, because often, only after reading the word, you can understand the name or simply the name of the thing.

Noun: what is this

Before you figure out which nouns are called proper nouns and which are nouns, it's worth remembering what it is.

Nouns are words that answer the questions "What?", "Who?" And denote the name of things or persons ("table", "person"), they vary in declension, gender, numbers and cases. In addition, words relating to this part of speech are their own / common.

The concept of a noun: nouns and nouns

In addition to rare exceptions, all nouns belong to the category of either their own or the nominal ones.

The common names of homogeneous things or phenomena that may differ from each other by some peculiarities are referred to as the nominal, but they will still be called one word. For example, the noun "toy" is a common noun, although it generalizes the names of different objects: machines, dolls, bears and other things from this group. In Russian, as in most others, common nouns are always written with a small letter.
Proper nouns are the names of individuals, prominent things, places or persons. For example, the word "doll" is a common noun, which calls the whole category of toys, but the name of the popular doll brand "Barbie" is its own name. All proper names are written with the capital letter.
It should be noted that the nominal nouns, in contrast to their own, carry a certain lexical meaning. For example, when the "doll" is spoken, it becomes clear that it is a toy, but when you simply call the name "Masha" outside the context of the common noun, it is not clear who or what it is - a girl, a doll, a brand name, a hairdresser or a chocolate bar.

Ethnonyms

As already mentioned above, nouns are proper and common nouns. While scholars of linguistics have not yet come to a consensus on the relationship between these two categories. There are 2 views on this question: according to one, between the nominal and own nouns there is a clear dividing line; According to another, the dividing line between these digits is not absolute because of the frequent transition of nouns from one discharge to another. Therefore, there are so-called "intermediate" words that do not refer to either their own or the nominal nouns, although they have the attributes of both categories. These nouns include ethnonyms - words that mean the names of peoples, nationalities, tribes and other similar concepts.

Nouns nouns: examples and types

In the lexicon of the Russian language, most common nouns. All of them are divided into four types.

1. Specific - denote objects or phenomena that can be counted (people, birds and animals, flowers). For example: adult, child, thrush, shark, ash, violet. Specific common nouns almost always have a plural and single form and are combined by numerical quantitative: "adult - two adults", "one violet - five violets".

2. Abstract - denote concepts, feelings, objects that can not be counted: "love", "health", "ingenuity". Most often this kind of common nouns is used only in the singular. If, for one reason or another, the noun of this species has acquired the plural ("fear - fears"), it loses its abstract meaning.

3. Real - denote substances that are homogeneous in composition, do not have separate items: chemical elements (mercury), food (macaroni), drugs (citramon) and other similar concepts. Real nouns can not be counted, but they can be measured (kilograms of pasta). The words of this kind of nominal have only one form of number: either plural or single: "oxygen" is the only number, "cream" is a plural.

4. Collective - nouns, meaning a collection of the same type of objects or individuals, as a single, indivisible whole: "brotherhood", "humanity." Nouns of this species can not be accounted for and are only used in the form of an singular number. However, with them you can use the words "little", "few", "little" and the like: many guys, how many infantry and others.

Proper nouns: examples and types

Depending on the lexical meaning, these types of proper nouns are distinguished: 1. Anthroponyms - names, surnames, pseudonyms, nicknames and nicknames of people: Vasilyeva Anastasia, George Sand.
2. Theonyms - names and names of deities: Zeus, Buddha.
3. Zoonyms - nicknames and nicknames of animals: the dog Barbos, the cat Mari.
4. All kinds of place names - geographical names, cities (Volgograd), water bodies (Baikal), streets (Pushkin) and others.
5. Aeronautimony - the name of various space and aircraft: the spaceship "Vostok", the interorbital station "Mir".
6. Names of works of art, literature, cinema, TV programs: Mona Lisa, Crime and Punishment, Vertical, Yeralash.
7. Names of organizations, sites, brands: "Oxford", "Vkontakte", "Milavitsa".
8. Names of holidays and other social events: Christmas, Independence Day.
9. Names of unique phenomena of nature: Hurricane Isabel.
10. Names of unique buildings and objects: the cinema "Rodina", the sports complex "Olympic".

Transition of own to common and vice versa

Since the language is not something abstracted and constantly subject to the influence of both external and internal factors, the words often change their category: their own pass into the nominal, and the nominal pass to the proper nouns. Examples of this are quite common. So the phenomenon of nature "frost" - from the common noun turned into a proper noun, the name Moroz. The process of the transition of the nominal into the proper is called isimization.

At the same time, the name of the famous German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen, who first discovered X-ray radiation, in colloquial speech of the Russian language has long turned into the name of the study of something with the help of the "X-ray" radiation discovered by him. Such a process is called appellation, and such words are called eponyms.

How to distinguish

In addition to the semantic difference, there are also grammatical differences that make it possible to clearly distinguish the proper nouns and common nouns. Russian in this regard is quite practical. The category of nominal nouns, unlike their own, as a rule, has the form of both plural and singular numbers: "artist - artists".

At the same time, another category is almost always used only in the singular: Picasso is the artist's last name, the only number. However, there are exceptions when it is possible to use the proper nouns in the plural. Examples of this name, originally used in the plural: the village of Big Boars. In this case, these nouns are often devoid of a single number: the mountains of the Carpathians.
Sometimes proper names can be used in the plural, if they denote different individuals or phenomena, but with identical names. For example: In our class there are three Xenia.

How do you spell

If it's rather simple to write common nouns: all of them are written with a small letter, and otherwise you should adhere to the usual rules of the Russian language, then another level has some nuances that you need to know in order to correctly write your own nouns. Examples of incorrect writing can often be found not only in the notebooks of negligent schoolchildren, but also in the documents of adults and respectable people.

To avoid such mistakes, you must learn a few simple rules:

1. All proper names, without exception, are written with the capital, especially if it concerns the nicknames of the legendary heroes: Richard the Lionheart. If a name, surname or geographical name consists of two or more nouns, regardless of whether they are spelled separately or hyphenated, each of these words must begin with a capital letter. An interesting example can serve as the nickname of the main rascal epic about Harry Potter - the Dark Lord. Afraid to call him by name, the heroes called the wicked wizard "The One Who Can not Be Called." In this case, all 4 words are written with large letters, since this is the nickname of the character.

2. If there are articles, particles and other service particles of speech in the name or title, they are written with a small letter: Albrecht von Grefe, Leonardo da Vinci, but Leonardo DiCaprio. In the second example, the "di" part is written with a capital letter, since in the original language it is written together with the surname Leonardo DiCaprio. This principle extends to many names of their own foreign origin. In oriental names, the "pecking", "zul", "zade", "pasha" particles, indicating the social situation, and the like, regardless of the middle word, they stand or at the end are written with a small letter. The same principle applies to writing your own names with particles in other languages. German "background", "tsu", "auf"; The Spanish "de"; The Netherlands "van", "ter"; French "des", "du", "de la".

3. Particles "San-," "Saint-", "Saint-", "Ben-" located at the beginning of the surname of foreign origin are written with a capital and through a hyphen (Saint-Jemin); After O, there is always an apostrophe and the next letter is the capital letter (O'Henry). Part of "Mc-" should be written alternating hyphens, but often it is written together because of the approach of writing to the original: McKinley, but MacLane.

Once you understand this rather simple topic (such as a noun, types of nouns and examples), you can once and for all rid yourself of stupid, but rather unpleasant errors in spelling and the need to constantly look into the dictionary to test yourself.