An example of a common noun is "man."
Nouns are those words that, in a sentence, can act as a subject . These are names that refer to a being or an object. Common , on the other hand, is that which is common or that is not the exclusive property of someone.
The idea of a common noun , therefore, refers to the terms that can be used to name any member of a certain class or species , without taking into account its particularities or specificities.
Characteristics of a common noun
In order to better understand what a common noun is, it is worth analyzing the characteristics attributed to it by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and other specialists in linguistics and grammar, among which we would highlight the following:
– Its objective is to refer to things, objects, beings, people, aspects... that are present in the daily life of any individual. That is, they allow us to name things that are part of our world in an absolutely generic way.
– It can also be called a common name.
– For a noun to be considered of this typology, it is necessary and essential that it have an identity that it shares with other individuals of the same class.
– Among the set of common nouns that can function as examples are animal, plant, drink, house, school, book, store, bicycle...
– A notable difference that exists between common nouns and proper nouns is that the latter encounter the fact that their first letter is capitalized. This would be the case, for example, of Córdoba, Elvis Presley, George Clooney...
"Car" is a common noun; On the other hand, "Renault Clio" and "Ford Focus" are proper nouns.
The example of "man"
“Man” , for example, is a common noun that refers to all male human beings . It doesn't matter if the person is 23 or 94 years old, if they are 1.65 or 2.10 meters tall or if they live in Bolivia or Australia : just as long as they are male, they can already call themselves a man .
On the other hand, if we refer to Michael Jordan , Luis Suárez , Tony Blair and Ricky Martin , we will be naming different men (common noun) by their names or proper nouns. That is to say: Michael Jordan is a man and Luis Suárez is a man, but Michael Jordan is not Luis Suárez .
«Car», «city» and «actor», common nouns
Another example of a common noun is “car.” A person may indicate that he or she likes cars in a broad, generic sense. This name includes all cars: big, small, modern, old, etc. On the other hand, if another subject states that he likes the Renault Clio , he will be indicating his predilection for a specific car.
Madrid, Barcelona, Seville y Valencia, por último, son sustantivos propios que hacen referencia a cities (sustantivo común) específicas que forman parte de Spain (otro nombre propio, que identifica un país -sustantivo común-).
Another example that can help us to be clear about the difference between a common noun and a proper noun can be the one we present below: if we talk about “Spanish actors” we can say that we are using a common noun. However, if we then begin to list those individually, each of them will be a noun of its own. Specifically, they will be Miguel Ángel Silvestre , Javier Cámara , Rodolfo Sancho ...