Different Parts of Speech (Proper and Common Nouns)

A noun is a person, place or thing. Nouns can be proper or common.

Proper nouns specifically name a person, place or thing. For example: Peter (person), England (place), and Big Ben (thing). Proper nouns are capitalized. 

Common nouns do not specifically name a person, place or thing, but in general. For example: uncle (person), country (place), and clock (thing). Usually common nouns are not capitalized, but there are exceptions. One of those exceptions would be if a common noun is used at the beginning, for example: Bags are used to carry things in.

Here are some examples using proper nouns (London, Big Ben, and Peter):

• My favourite place is London.

• They took a photograph of Big Ben.

• He plays football with Peter every week.

Here are some examples using common nouns (city, clock, and uncle):

• My favourite place is in the city.

• They took a photograph of a clock.

• He plays football with his uncle every week.

Different Parts of Speech (Articles and Nouns)

There are different parts of speech in the English language: article, noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, participle, adverb, conjunction, preposition and interjection.

Let us begin with the first two in the list, the article and the noun. An article is placed before a noun. The articles are a, an and the - a and an are called indefinite articles (general) and the is called the definite article (specific).

A noun is a person, place or thing, for example: man (person), library (place), lion (thing),  and car (thing).

Here is an example using the definite and indefinite articles with a noun:

Have you got the pen? (referring to a specific pen)

Have you got a pen? (not referring to a specific pen)

There are 2 ways to write the indefinite article, a and an. Usually a is used when the noun begins with a consonant, for example, a ball, and an is used when the noun begins with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u), for example, an apple, but there are exceptions. One exception is the word 'university', which starts with a vowel, but uses a (a university) and not an, because the word 'university' has a consonant sound.

English Alphabet

There are twenty-six letters in the English Alphabet. The term Alphabet comes from the first two Greek letters which are Alpha and Beta, and denotes the order in which the letters are written.

They are arranged in the English Alphabet in the following order: Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy and Zz.

A Capital letter is used for the first word of a new sentence, or speech.

A Capital letter is used when referring to the One true God (a small g is used when referring to false gods).

A Capital letter is used for proper nouns (like proper names and places), and adjectives derived from them.

A Capital letter is used for 'I, O, Oh!'