• The bedroom walls are all oak panels.

• Books are repaired in the Conservation Lab.

• Mylar encapsulation is a technique for protecting brittle paper.

• Determinatives

Like other determiners, nouns and noun phrases can also function as determinatives. A determinative is a noun or nounphrase plus the possessive clitic (apostrophe s or s apostrophe) that indicates possession of or some other relationshipto another noun or noun phrase. The following italicized noun phrases are examples of determinatives:

• The cat is eating the dog's food.

• My parents' house is in the same part of town as mine.

• Why did your mother-in-law's cat run away?

Nouns and noun phrases functioning as determinatives can simultaneously function as subject complements. The following italicized noun phrases are examples of bother determinatives and subject complements:

• This bowl is the dog's.

• The two parking lots north of town are the university's.

• Those books by the door are the library's.

• Appositive

Nouns and noun phrases also function as appositives. An appositive is a word, phrase, or clause that modifies or explains another noun or noun phrase. The following italicized noun phrases are examples of appositives:

• Eagle-Eye Cherry, the musician, is an individual, not a group.

• Your aunt Lily is an eccentric lady.

• John Smith, the colonial captain, founded Jamestown in 1607.

• Adverbial

Finally, nouns and noun phrases can function as adverbials. An adverbial is a word, phrase, or clause that describes an entire clause by providing information such as time, place, manner, condition, reason, or purpose. Adverbials answers such questions as "when?" "where?" "why?" and "how?" The following italicized noun phrases are examples of adverbials:

• Today I need to go to bed early.

• I get to sleep in late Sunday morning.

• The puppy ran home.

Common and Proper Noun

Students of English grammar classes are often confused by the difference between a common and proper noun. Simply stated, a proper noun is capitalized, whereas a common noun is not. Any grammar teacher, however, will tell you that the difference goes deeper than that: there are special rules for identifying and creating proper nouns, and these might take special studying to understand completely.

The English language is unique in what it considers to be proper nouns and what it considers to be common nouns. Read on to learn more about the difference between a common and proper noun, how to use them correctly in sentences, and how to come up with your own examples of each.

Defining a Common Noun

A common noun is any generic uncapitalized noun. Here are some examples:

ball, tree, flower, moon, dog

Notice that these were all single. Here are some plural examples of common nouns:

balls, trees, flowers, moons, dogs

Most of the time, these nouns end in “s” to indicate plurality. 

A common noun is only capitalized when it is at the beginning of a sentence.

A basic definition of a common noun is a person, place thing or idea that is not specific to a certain, particular, or named person, place, thing, or idea. 

Defining a Proper Noun

In truth, a proper noun functions exactly the same way a common noun does, in that it is a person, place, thing, or idea. However, this proper noun is capitalized. You use them the same way in a sentence as a common noun, but it retains its capitalization whether or not it is at the beginning of a sentence.

Proper nouns include the days of the week, the months of the year, towns, cities, streets, states, countries, and brands.  

Names are all proper nouns, too!  Notice how your own first, middle, and last name are all capitalized: they are proper nouns because they indicate a specific, particular person – you!