The use of terminology in defining parts of speech and their varieties is common among philologists. For common man Often all sorts of sophisticated names seem like something unclear and complex. Many schoolchildren are unable to understand abstract terms denoting types of parts of speech, and they turn to their parents for help. Adults have to look again at textbooks or search for information on the Internet.

Today we will try to talk in simple and understandable Russian about what proper and common nouns are, how they differ, how to find them and use them correctly in speech and text.

What part of speech?

Before determining the part of speech in Russian, you need to correctly ask a question about the word and determine what it means. If the word you chose matches the questions “who?” or “what?”, but it denotes an object, then it is a noun. This simple truth is easily learned even by schoolchildren, and many adults remember it. But the question of whether the noun in front of you is a proper or a common noun can already confuse a person. Let's try to figure out what these linguistic definitions mean.

The answer is in meaning

All words belonging to the part of speech we are considering are divided into several types and categories according to different signs. One of the classifications is the division into proper and common nouns. It is not so difficult to distinguish them, you just need to understand the meaning of the word. If an individual specific person or some single object is called, then it is proper, and if the meaning of the word indicates common name many similar objects, persons or phenomena, then this is a common noun.

Let's explain this with examples. The word "Alexandra" is proper because it denotes the name of an individual person. The words “girl, girl, woman” are common nouns because they represent a general name for all female persons. The difference becomes clear, and it lies in the meaning.

Names and nicknames

It is customary to classify several groups of words as proper nouns.

The first consists of the person’s first name, patronymic and last name, as well as his nickname or pseudonym. This also includes cat, dog and other animal names. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, Murka, Pushinka, Sharik, Druzhok - these names distinguish one specific creature from others of their own kind. If we select a common noun for the same objects, we can say: poet, cat, dog.

Names on the map

The second group of words consists of names of various geographical objects. Let's give examples: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Washington, Neva, Volga, Rhine, Russia, France, Norway, Europe, Africa, Australia. For comparison, we also give a common noun corresponding to the given names: city, river, country, continent.

Space objects

The third group includes various astronomical names. These are, for example, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mercury, Solar System, Milky Way. Each of the given names is a proper name, and you can choose a common noun generalized in meaning to it. Examples of named objects correspond to the words planet, galaxy.

Names and brands

Another group of words that are proper are various names of something - shops, cafes, literary works, paintings, magazines, newspapers, and so on. In the phrase “Magnit store,” the first is a common noun, and the second is a proper noun. Let's give more similar examples: the cafe "Chocolate Girl", the novel "War and Peace", the painting "Water", the magazine "Murzilka", the newspaper "Arguments and Facts", the sailing ship "Sedov", the plant "Babaevsky", the gas stove "Hephaestus", “Consultant Plus” system, “Chardonnay” wine, “Napoleon” cake, “United Russia” party, “Nika” award, “Alenka” chocolate, “Ruslan” airplane.

Spelling features

Since proper names indicate a specific individual object, distinguishing it from all other similar ones, they also stand out in writing - they are written with a capital letter. Children learn this at the very beginning of their schooling: surnames, first names, patronymics, designations on the map, animal names, and other names of something are written with a capital letter. Examples: Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, Vanka, Ivan Kalita, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Novgorod, Angara, Cyprus, Turkey, Australia, Zhuchka, Pushok, Murzik.

There is another feature of writing proper nouns, it concerns the names of factories, companies, enterprises, ships, periodicals(newspapers and magazines), works of art and literature, fiction, documentaries and other films, performances, cars, drinks, cigarettes and other similar words. Such names are not only written with a capital letter, but also enclosed in quotation marks. In philological science they are called by their proper names. Examples: Niva car, Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, Mayak radio, poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, Chanel perfume, Za Rulem magazine, Troika cigarettes, Fanta drink, Prosveshcheniye publishing house , Abba group, Kinotavr festival.

WITH capital letter a proper noun begins with a lowercase - a common noun. This simple rule often helps a person in determining spelling standards. This rule is easy to remember, but sometimes there are difficulties. As you know, the Russian language is rich in its exceptions to every rule. IN school curriculum such complex cases are not included, and therefore in the assignments of the Russian language textbook, even junior schoolchildren They can easily determine from the first letter in a word whether it is a proper or a common noun.

Conversion of a proper name into a common noun and vice versa

As noted above, a common noun is a generalized name for something. But the Russian language is a living, changing system, and sometimes various transformations and changes occur in it: sometimes common nouns become proper nouns. For example: earth - land, Earth - planet solar system. Universal human values, designated by the common nouns love, faith and hope, have long become female names- Faith Hope Love. In the same way, some animal nicknames and other names arise: Ball, Snowball, etc.

The reverse process also occurs in the Russian language, when proper nouns become common nouns. Thus, the unit of electrical voltage - the volt - was named after the Italian physicist Volta. The name of the master of musical instruments, Sax, became the common noun “saxophone”. The Dutch city of Bruges gave its name to the word "trousers". The names of the great gunsmiths - Mauser, Colt, Nagan - became the names of pistols. And there are many such examples in the language.

In the world great amount a wide variety of phenomena. For each of them there is a name in the language. If it names a whole group of objects, then such a word is. When there is a need to name one object from a number of similar ones, then the language has its own names for this.

nouns

Common nouns are those nouns that immediately designate a whole class of objects united by some common features. For example:

• Each water stream can be called in one word - river.
• Any plant with a trunk and branches is a tree.
• All animals gray, big size, with a trunk instead of a nose are called elephants.
• A giraffe is any animal with a long neck, small horns and tall stature.

Proper names are nouns that distinguish one object from the entire class of similar phenomena. For example:

• The dog's name is Druzhok.
• My cat's name is Murka.
• This river is the Volga.
• The deepest lake is Baikal.

Once we know what a proper name is, we can complete the following task.

Practical task No. 1

Which nouns are proper nouns?

Moscow; city; Earth; planet; Bug; dog; Vlad; boy; radio station; "Lighthouse".

Capital letters in proper names

As can be seen from the first task, proper names, unlike common nouns, are written with a capital letter. Sometimes it happens that the same word is written either with a small letter or with a capital letter:

• bird eagle, city Orel, ship "Eagle";
• strong love, girl Love;
• early spring, “Spring” lotion;
• riverine willow, restaurant "Iva".

If you know what a proper name is, then it’s easy to understand the reason for this phenomenon: words denoting individual objects are written with a capital letter in order to separate them from others of the same kind.

Quotation marks for proper names

To know how to correctly use quotation marks in proper names, you need to learn the following: proper names denoting phenomena in the world created by human hands are isolated. In this case, the markers are quotation marks:

• newspaper "New World";
• DIY magazine;
• Amta factory;
• Hotel Astoria;
• ship "Swift".

Transition of words from common nouns to proper ones and vice versa

It cannot be said that the distinction between the categories of proper names and common nouns is unshakable. Sometimes common nouns become proper names. We talked about the rules for writing them above. What proper names can you give? Examples of transition from the category of common nouns:

• cream "Spring";
• perfume "Jasmine";
• cinema "Zarya";
• magazine "Worker".

Proper names also easily become generalized names for homogeneous phenomena. Below are proper names that can already be called common nouns:

• These are young philanderers to me!
• We mark in Newtons, but we don’t know the formulas;
• You are all Pushkins until you write a dictation.

Practical task No. 2

Which sentences contain proper nouns?

1. We decided to meet at the Ocean.

2. In the summer I swam in a real ocean.

3. Anton decided to give his beloved perfume “Rose”.

4. The rose was cut in the morning.

5. We are all Socrates in our kitchen.

6. This idea was first put forward by Socrates.

Classification of proper names

It would seem easy to understand what a proper name is, but you still need to repeat the main thing - proper names are assigned to one object from a whole series. It is advisable to classify the following series of phenomena:

People's names, surnames, patronymics, animal names are animate nouns, and geographical names and designations of everything created by man are inanimate. This is how proper names are characterized from the point of view of the category of animation.

Proper names in the plural

It is necessary to dwell on one point, which is determined by the semantics of the studied features of proper names that they are rarely used in the plural. You can use them to refer to several objects if they have the same proper name:

The surname can be used in plural. in two cases. Firstly, if it denotes a family, people who are related:

• It was customary for the Ivanovs to gather for dinner with the whole family.
• The Karenins lived in St. Petersburg.
• The Zhurbin dynasty all had a hundred years of work experience at the metallurgical plant.

Secondly, if namesakes are named:

• Hundreds of Ivanovs can be found in the registry.
• They are my full namesakes: the Grigoriev Alexandras.

- inconsistent definitions

One of the Unified State Examination tasks in the Russian language requires knowledge of what a proper name is. Graduates are required to establish correspondences between sentences and those included in them. One of these is a violation in the construction of sentences with inconsistent application. The fact is that the proper name, which is an inconsistent application, does not change according to cases with the main word. Examples of such sentences with grammatical errors are given below:

• Lermontov was not delighted with his poem “Demona” (poem “Demon”).
• Dostoevsky described the spiritual crisis of his time in the novel The Brothers Karamazov (in the novel The Brothers Karamazov).
• A lot is said and written about the film “Taras Bulba” (About the film “Taras Bulba”).

If a proper name acts as an addition, that is, in the absence of a defined word, then it can change its form:

• Lermontov was not delighted with his “Demon”.
• Dostoevsky described the spiritual crisis of his time in The Brothers Karamazov.
• A lot is said and written about Taras Bulba.

Practical task No. 3

Which sentences have errors?

1. We stood for a long time in front of the painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga.”

2. In “A Hero of His Time,” Lermontov sought to reveal the problems of his era.

3. The “Pechorin Journal” reveals the vices of a secular person.

4). The story “Maksim Maksimych” reveals the image of a wonderful person.

5. In his opera “The Snow Maiden,” Rimsky-Korsakov sang love as the highest ideal of humanity.

A proper name is Name a noun expressed by the word or, naming a specific object or phenomenon. Unlike a common noun, which immediately denotes a whole object or phenomenon, Name own is intended for one, very specific object of this class. For example, "" is a common noun Name is a noun, whereas “War and Peace” is a proper noun. The word "river" represents Name a common noun, but “Cupid” is Name proper. Proper names can be names of people, patronymics, titles of books, songs, films, geographical names. Proper names are written with a capital letter. Some types of proper names require quotation marks. It refers to literary works(“Eugene Onegin”), paintings (“Mona Lisa”), films (“Only Old Men Go to Battle”), theaters (“Variety”), and other types of nouns. When translating proper names into other languages, transcription and : Gogolya-street (Gogol Street), radio Mayak (Radio “Mayak”). Proper names are not specially distinguished. Proper names and common nouns are not separated from each other by an impenetrable wall. Proper names can turn into common nouns, and vice versa. For example, “avatar” was just a common noun until Avatar was made. Now this word, depending on the context, plays the role of a common noun or a proper noun. “Schumacher” is the surname of a certain racing driver, but gradually all lovers of fast driving began to be called “Schumachers.” Trademarks that are unique producers of a certain type of product or simply monopolists can become common nouns from proper names. A striking example is the company Xerox, which produces electrophotographic copiers. This company still exists today, but “copiers” are now called all copiers in general.

Sources:

• how to write proper names

Tip 2: How to determine whether a proper name or a common noun

Nouns name objects, phenomena or concepts. These meanings are expressed using the categories of gender, number and case. All nouns belong to the groups of proper and common nouns. Proper nouns, which serve as names of individual objects, are contrasted with common nouns, which denote generalized names of homogeneous objects.

Instructions

To determine proper nouns, determine whether the name is an individual designation of an object, i.e. does it make it stand out? Name» an object from a number of similar ones (Moscow, Russia, Sidorov). Proper nouns name first and last names of persons and names of animals (Nekrasov, Pushok, Fru-fru); geographical and astronomical objects (America, Stockholm, Venus); , organizations, print media (Pravda newspaper, Spartak team, Eldorado store).

Proper names, as a rule, do not change in number and are used only in the singular (Voronezh) or only in the plural (Sokolniki). Please note that there are exceptions to this rule. Proper nouns are used in the form plural, if denoted different persons and objects with the same names (both Americas, namesake Petrovs); persons who are related (the Fedorov family). Also, proper nouns can be used in the plural form if they name a certain type of people, “selected” according to the qualitative characteristics of a famous literary character. Please note that in this meaning, nouns lose the attribute of belonging to a group of individual objects, therefore it is acceptable to use both capital and lowercase letters (Chichikovs, Famusovs, Pechorins).

A spelling feature that distinguishes proper nouns is the use of capital letters and. Moreover, all proper names are always letters, and the names of institutions, organizations, works, objects are used as appendices and are enclosed in quotation marks (the motor ship “Fedor Shalyapin”, Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons”). The application may include any part of speech, but the first word is always capitalized (Daniel Defoe’s novel “The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe”).

A noun in Russian has different distinctive features. To show the peculiarities of the emergence and use of certain linguistic units, they are divided into common nouns and proper nouns.

Instructions

Common nouns are nouns that denote the name of certain objects and phenomena that have a common set of characteristics. These objects or phenomena belong to any class, but in themselves do not carry any special indications of this

Quite often, students ask: “What is a common noun and a proper name?” Despite the simplicity of the question, not everyone knows the definition of these terms and the rules for writing such words. Let's figure it out. After all, in fact, everything is extremely simple and clear.

Common noun

The most significant layer of nouns consists of They denote the names of a class of objects or phenomena that have a number of characteristics by which they can be attributed to the specified class. For example, common nouns are: cat, table, corner, river, girl. They do not name a specific object or person or animal, but designate a whole class. Using these words, we mean any cat or dog, any table. Such nouns are written with a small letter.

In linguistics, common nouns are also called appellatives.

Proper name

Unlike common nouns, they constitute an insignificant layer of nouns. These words or phrases denote a specific and specific object that exists in a single copy. Proper names include names of people, names of animals, names of cities, rivers, streets, and countries. For example: Volga, Olga, Russia, Danube. They are always written with a capital letter and indicate a specific person or single object.

The science of onomastics deals with the study of proper names.

Onomastics

So, we have figured out what a common noun and a proper name are. Now let's talk about onomastics - the science that deals with the study of proper names. At the same time, not only names are considered, but also the history of their origin, how they changed over time.

Onomastologists identify several directions in this science. Thus, anthroponymy studies the names of people, and ethnonymy studies the names of peoples. Cosmonymics and astronomy study the names of stars and planets. Zoonymics studies animal names. Theonymics deals with the names of gods.

This is one of the most promising areas in linguistics. Research on onomastics is still being conducted, articles are being published, and conferences are being held.

Transition of common nouns into proper nouns and vice versa

A common noun and a proper noun can move from one group to another. Quite often it happens that a common noun becomes a proper one.

For example, if a person is called by a name that was previously part of the class of common nouns, it becomes a proper name. A striking example such a transformation - the names are Faith, Love, Hope. They used to be household names.

Surnames formed from common nouns also become anthroponyms. Thus, we can highlight the surnames Cat, Cabbage and many others.

As for proper names, they quite often move into another category. This often concerns people's last names. Many inventions bear the names of their authors; sometimes the names of scientists are assigned to the quantities or phenomena they discovered. So, we know the units of measurement ampere and newton.

The names of the heroes of the works can become household names. Thus, the names Don Quixote, Oblomov, Uncle Styopa came to designate certain traits of appearance or character characteristic of people. First and last names historical figures and celebrities can also be used as household names, for example Schumacher and Napoleon.

In such cases, it is necessary to clarify what exactly the addresser means in order to avoid mistakes when writing the word. But often it is possible from the context. We think you understand what a common and proper name is. The examples we have given show this quite clearly.

Rules for writing proper names

As you know, all parts of speech are subject to spelling rules. Nouns - common and proper - were also no exception. Remember a few simple rules that will help you avoid making annoying mistakes in the future.

1. Proper names are always written with a capital letter, for example: Ivan, Gogol, Catherine the Great.
2. People's nicknames are also written with a capital letter, but without the use of quotation marks.
3. Proper names used in the meaning of common nouns are written with a small letter: Don Quixote, Don Juan.
4. If next to a proper name there are function words or generic names (cape, city), then they are written with a small letter: Volga River, Lake Baikal, Gorky Street.
5. If a proper name is the name of a newspaper, cafe, book, then it is placed in quotation marks. In this case, the first word is written with a capital letter, the rest, if they do not refer to proper names, are written with a small letter: “The Master and Margarita”, “Russian Truth”.
6. Common nouns are written with a small letter.

As you can see, quite simple rules. Many of them have been known to us since childhood.

Let's sum it up

All nouns are divided into two large class- proper and common nouns. There are much fewer of the former than the latter. Words can move from one class to another, acquiring a new meaning. Proper names are always written with a capital letter. Common nouns - with a small one.