The Proper Noun

Recognize a proper noun when you see one.

Nouns name people, places, and things. 

                                                      Every noun can further be classified as common or proper. A proper noun has two distinctive features: 1) 

it will name a specific [usually a one-of-a-kind] item, and 2) it will begin with a capital letter no matter where it occurs in a sentence.
Check out the chart below:

Common Noun	Proper Noun
writer teacher beagle cookie city restaurant document school	Herman Melville Mrs. Hacket Snoopy Oreo Orlando Tito's Taco Palace Declaration of Independence University of Southern California

Read the following sentences. Notice the difference between the common and proper nouns.

Tina offered Antonio one of her mother's homemade oatmeal cookies but only an Oreo would satisfy his sweet tooth. 

Cookies = common noun; Oreo = proper noun. 

Charlie had wanted an easy teacher for his composition class, but he got Mrs. Hacket, whose short temper and unreasonable demands made the semester a torture.

Teacher = common noun; Mrs. Hacket = proper noun. 

Gloria wanted to try a new restaurant, so Richard took her to Tito's Taco Palace, where no one dips into the hot sauce until the drinks have arrived at the table. 

Restaurant = common noun; Tito's Taco Palace = proper noun.

The Common Noun

Recognize a common noun when you see one.

Nouns name people, places, and things. Every noun can further be classified as common or proper. A common noun names general items 

Go into the kitchen. What do you see? Refrigerator, magnet, stove, window, coffee maker, wallpaper, spatula, sink, plate—all of these things are common nouns.

Leave the house. Where can you go? Mall, restaurant, school, post office, backyard, beach, pet store, supermarket, gas station—all of these places are common nouns. 

Go to the mall. Who do you see? Teenager, grandmother, salesclerk, police officer, toddler, manager, window dresser, janitor, shoplifter—all of these people are common nouns. 

The important thing to remember is that common nouns are general names. Thus, they are not capitalized unless they begin a sentence or are part of a title. Proper nouns, those that name specific things, do require capitalization. 

Notice the difference in the chart below:

Common Nouns	Proper Nouns
coffee shop waiter jeans sandwich chair arena country fire fighter	Starbucks Simon Levi's Big Mac Roll-O-Rocker Amway Arena Australia Captain Richard Orsini

Here are some sample sentences:

Although there are five other chairs in the living room, everyone in Jim's family fights to sit in the puffy new Roll-O-Rocker. 

Chairs = common noun; Roll-O-Rocker = proper noun. 

Harriet threw the stale cucumber sandwich in the trash can and fantasized about a Big Mac dripping with special sauce. 

Sandwich = common noun;        Big Mac = proper noun.

Because we like an attentive waiter, we always ask for Simon when we eat at Mama Rizzoli's Pizzeria. 

Waiter = common noun; Simon = proper noun.

Four Genders of Noun

In English, the four genders of noun are masculine, feminine, common, and neuter. 

Masculine nouns

 refer to words for a male figure or male member of a species (i.e. man, boy, actor, horse, etc.)

Feminine nouns

 refer to female figures or female members of a species (i.e. woman, girl, actress, mare, etc.)

Common nouns

 refer to members of a species and don't specify the gender (i.e. parent, friend, client, student, etc.)

Neuter nouns

 refer to things that have no gender (i.e. rock, table, pencil, etc.)

Plural Rules Chart

Spelling Plural Nouns
Here are some general rules for spelling plural nouns.

Nouns	Plural	Examples
Most nouns	add s	book, books; cup, cups; sprout, sprouts
Most nouns that end in ch, sh, s, x, or z	add es	box, boxes; bus, buses; prize, prizes
Most nouns that end in a vowel and y	add s	boy, boys; day, days; key, keys
Most nouns that end in a consonant and y	y becomes ies	baby, babies; country, countries; spy, spies
Most nouns that end in f or fe	f or fe becomes ves	elf, elves; loaf, loaves; thief, thieves
Most nouns that end in o	add s	kangaroo, kangaroos; piano, pianos; video, videos
Certain nouns that end in a consonant and o	add es	hero, heroes; potato, potatoes; volcano, volcanoes

Some Exceptions Certain English nouns change a vowel sound when they become plural.

These include goose, geese; man, men; mouse, mice; and tooth, teeth.

Some nouns don't change at all when they become plural.

These include deer, fish, sheep, andspecies.

A few nouns have plural forms that are left from Old English.

These include child, children and ox, oxen.

Addresses of Quaid-e-Azam

(1)(Address at Islamia College Peshawar)

In 1946, Quaid-e-Azam declared

'We do not demand Pakistan simply to have a piece of land but we want a laboratory where we could experiment on Islamic principles.

(2)Address on March 08, 1944

While addressing the students of Muslim University, he said

Hindus and Muslims through living in the same town and villages, had never been blended into one nation. They were always two separate entities.

(3)In his presidential address 

at the annual session of Muslim League at Lahore in 1940, he said

India is not a nation, nor a country. It is a Sub Continent of Nationalities. Hindus and Muslims being the two major nations. The Hindus and Muslims belongs to two different religions, philosophies, social customs and literature. They neither intermarry nor interdine and they belong to two different civilization which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.Their aspects on life and of are different. It is quite clear that Hindus and Muslims derive their inspiration from different sources of history.

(4)(Address on 18th June 1945)

In his message to the frontier Muslim Students Federation, he said

Pakistan only means freedom and independence but Muslims ideology, which has to be preserved which has come to us a precious gift and treasure and which we hope, others will share with us.


The above sayings and statements largely prove that Quaid-e-Azam wanted an established Islamic system as a code of life because he believed that it was the sole objective of the Pakistan Movement.