Own and common words. Common nouns

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 own and common nouns. Proper nouns, which serve as the names of single objects, are opposed to common nouns, denoting generalized names of homogeneous objects.

Instruction

To determine common nouns, establish whether the named object or phenomenon belongs to the class of homogeneous objects (city, person, song). The grammatical feature of common nouns is the category of number, i.e. their use in the singular and plural(cities, people, songs). Please note that most real, abstract and collective nouns do not have a plural form (gasoline, inspiration, youth).

To determine proper nouns, determine whether the name is an individual designation of the subject, i.e. does it highlight " name» an object from a number of homogeneous (Moscow, Russia, Sidorov). Proper nouns call the names and surnames of persons and nicknames of animals (Nekrasov, Pushok, Frou-frou) - geographical and astronomical objects (America, Stockholm, Venus) - institutions, organizations, print media (Pravda newspaper, Spartak team, store "El Dorado").

Proper names, as a rule, do not change in numbers 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 plural form if they denote different persons and objects that have the same name (both Americas, Petrov's namesakes) - 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, “highlighted” according to the qualitative characteristics of a famous literary character. Please note that in this meaning, nouns lose their sign of belonging to a group of single objects, therefore, both the use of an uppercase and a lowercase letter (Chichikovs, Famusovs, Pechorins) is acceptable.

The orthographic feature that distinguishes between proper nouns and common nouns is the use of a capital letter and quotation marks. At the same time, all proper names are always written with a capital letter, and the names of institutions, organizations, works, objects are used as applications and are enclosed in quotation marks (the ship "Fyodor Chaliapin", Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons"). Any part of speech can be included in the appendix, but the first word is always capitalized (Daniel Defoe's novel The Life and Adventures of the Sailor Robinson Crusoe).

When opening a new Internet resource, one of the most difficult problems is choosing the right name. This process is further complicated by the fact that most of the monosyllabic domain names are already taken by more efficient Internet startups. But there is still a way out.

You will need

• - resource brand-book;
• - a list of theses of the semantic load of the title.

Instruction

Divide the name selection process into two successive steps: choosing a name for the resource itself and choosing a domain name. First of all, you need to find the best options for the name. It is necessary to determine the main goals and objectives of the resource, the policy for creating content and the style of presenting the material. It does not matter whether the resource is commercial or not.

Create a list of abstracts for the future name based on the accepted brand book. They should outline the informative and emotional content of the future name. There are no clear restrictions when compiling such a list: these can be nouns and verbs, proper names and common nouns, they can express emotions and feelings.

Gather an initiative group of employees related to the resource and brainstorm. To increase efficiency, it is necessary to distribute in advance to all participants the task of compiling a list of abstracts. At their discretion, everyone should make an arbitrary written description of the most important informative features of the future site name. During the brainstorming session, ask everyone to read their list in turn and, as part of a peer discussion, select the most successful proposals.

Summarize the brainstorming and make a final list of abstracts. On their basis, each of the members of the initiative group must draw up a list of names and titles. It is best to limit the number of suggested options by quantity.

Gather suggested lists and try to find some of the best names. After that, check if the same domain names are free, including those in the rf zone. If you don't find an exact match, take a seat, otherwise try modifying the site name by using valid punctuation marks, numbers instead of letters, etc.

The Russian language is a complex and at the same time harmonious system. Words are made up of morphemes, sentences are made up of words, texts are made up of sentences. Each named category is part of a specific section: vocabulary, phonetics, word formation,. All words in the Russian language are divided into large lexical and grammatical categories. These discharges are studied in morphology. This section studies the parts of speech and their grammatical features. Perhaps the most numerous group is the group of nouns.

Important! The noun has a general categorical meaning of the subject.

They are divided by different grounds into groups. Nouns are proper and common nouns, animate and inanimate, masculine, neuter and female, declinable, non-declining and dissimilar. Proper and common nouns are the subject of this article.

They are written as part of a sentence with a small letter, except when required by the rules of punctuation. For example, it can be the beginning of a sentence or a sentence with direct speech.

All common nouns are divided into subgroups according to their meaning:

• specific. These are words denoting concepts that are tangible. In other words, these objects are real, they can be picked up. For example: printer, table, spoon, phone, pencil case, organizer, fox, piano, castle, tree, pine, earth, moon, sponsor, magazine.
• Abstract. That is, those that denote concepts that a person can feel, but he cannot touch them. Examples: love, friendship, confusion, fear, emotions, malaise, hatred, sympathy, affection, novelty, slyness, attraction.
• Collective. They denote groups of people united by a common feature. For example: children, students, teachers, youth, pensioners, schoolchildren.
• Real. They represent any substance. For example: semolina, gold, oil, plastic, glass, corn, barley, peas.

Proper nouns

Enough stands out large group nouns that have the meaning of uniqueness, singularity, separateness. That is, they somehow stand out from the general range of objects, phenomena, concepts.

In Russian, they are usually called their own. Proper nouns are always written with a capital letter. In some cases, they can be written not only with a capital letter, but also in quotation marks.

Informative! Russian lessons: - meet or meet

Proper nouns are divided into types:

• Surnames, first names and patronymics of people, as well as pseudonyms: Ivan Bunin, Alexander Grin, Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov, Antosha Chekhonte, Theodore Dreiser, Victor Hugo, Prosper Merimee.
• Animal names: Murka, Mukhtar, bouquet, Zhdanka, Milka, Chernysh, White, Bold, Fluff.
• Names from the field of geography and astronomy: Mars, Pluto, Ursa Major, Transbaikalia, Dniester, Pripyat, Moscow, Sayans, Carpathians, Volga, Yenisei, Aldebaran, Izumrudny microdistrict, Vasilievka village, Baikal, Victoria, Australia, Eurasia.
• Names of the most important historical events, as well as holidays: Battle of Borodino, New Year, Battle of Waterloo, Kursk Bulge, Battle of Stalingrad, Mamaev kurgan.
• Names of works of art and literary works: "Quiet Don", "Young Guard", "Fathers and Sons", "The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Robinson Crusoe", "Moonlight Sonata", "Music of Tears", "Leningrad Symphony", "Morning in the Forest", "The Extraordinary Adventures of Niels" with wild geese".
• Names of printed periodicals, television and radio programs, names of institutions: "Events", "Vesti-Mayak", Bolshoi Theater, Moscow Art Theater, Novoshirokinsky mine, "Literary newspaper", "Today", "Wedding in Malinovka", Novoorlovskaya school.

Peculiarities

It must be remembered that there is no clear division into proper and common names.

Important! Nouns can change their status depending on the context and speech situation.

A striking example of a situation where one's own has become a household name is the story of the Mercedes car brand, when this word began to mean any large and expensive car, and the Xerox company began to mean copying in general. And vice versa, an example of the transition of a common noun into its own: snowball - dog Snowball; products - shop "Products".

The correct spelling of proper and common nouns is explained quite easily.

The first ones are always capitalized. The latter should always be written with a lowercase letter, except for cases that are subject to the strict regularity of the punctuation rules of the Russian language.

There are some more features of proper and common nouns. These features will help determine exactly which category a word belongs to:

• Proper nouns cannot form plural forms. An exception may be the names of persons of the same family: the Vasiliev couple, the Ignatiev, Silin, Chetveryakov families.
• Common nouns are able to form a plural form. The only exceptions are those that always have only the singular form ( milk, children, teachers).

Useful video

Summing up

Naturally, it is not difficult for native speakers to determine whether a noun belongs to a particular group. But for foreigners, when studying the Russian language, it can be quite difficult to do this. For this reason, the grammatical indicators of proper and are important. The most difficult are those cases when there is a process of transition from one group of nouns to another. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was right when he said that not knowing a language is akin to a state when a person does not have a passport. Indeed, the Russian language is rightfully one of the most difficult languages ​​in terms of grammar in the modern world.

Many nouns denoting persons, objects and phenomena are usually classified in accordance with the object of naming - this is how the division into a common noun and a proper name appeared.

Common nouns VS onyms

Common nouns (otherwise - appellatives) name objects that have a certain common set of features and belong to a particular class of objects or phenomena. For example: boy, peach, sturgeon, meeting, mourning, pluralism, uprising.

Proper names, or onyms, call single objects or individuals, for example: writer Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin, city Essentuki, painting " girl with peaches", TV center " Ostankino».

Proper names and common nouns, examples of which we have given above, are traditionally opposed to each other, since they have different meaning and do not coincide in the scope of their functioning.

Typology of common names

The common noun in Russian forms special lexical and grammatical categories, the words in which are grouped depending on the type of the naming object:

1. Specific names (they are also called "concrete-objective") serve as the names of persons, living beings, objects. These words change in numbers and are combined with cardinal numbers: teacher - teachers - the first teacher; chick - chicks; cube - cubes.

2. Abstract, or abstract, nouns name the state, sign, action, result: success, hope, creativity, merit.

3. Real, or material, nouns (they are also called "concrete-material") - words specific in semantics that name certain substances. These words most often do not have a correlative plural form. There are the following groups of real nouns: nominations of food products ( butter, sugar, tea), names medicines (iodine, streptocide), names of chemicals ( fluorine, beryllium), minerals and metals ( potassium, magnesium, iron), other substances ( rubble, snow). Such common nouns, examples of which are given above, can be used in the plural form. This is appropriate when it comes to types and varieties of a substance: wines, cheeses; about the space that is filled with this substance: sands of the Sahara, neutral waters.

4. Collective nouns name a certain set of homogeneous objects, the unity of persons or other living beings: foliage, students, nobility.

"Shifts" in the meaning of common names

Sometimes a common noun includes in its meaning an indication not only of a certain class of objects, but also of some very specific object within its class. This happens if:

• The individual attributes of the object are ignored as such: for example, there is folk omen « Kill a spider - forty sins will be forgiven”, and in this context, it does not mean any particular spider, but absolutely any.
• In the described situation, one specific object of this class is meant: for example, “ Come sit on the bench» - the interlocutors know exactly where the meeting point is.
• The individual features of an object can be described with explanatory definitions: for example: “ I can't forget the wonderful day we met”, - the speaker stands out a specific day among a series of other days.

The transition of nouns from onyms to appellatives

Separate proper names are sometimes used to generically designate a number of homogeneous objects, then they turn into common nouns. Examples: Dzhimorda, Don Juan; Napoleon cake; colt, mauser, revolver; ohm, amp.

Proper names that have become appellatives are called eponyms. In modern speech, they are usually used to jokingly or derogatoryly speak about someone: Aesculapius(doctor), pele(football player) Schumacher(racer, lover of fast driving).

An animate common noun can also become an eponym if any product or institution is called this way: sweets " Bear in the north", oil " Kuban Burenka", restaurant " Senator».

Nomenclature units and trademarks-eponyms

The class of eponyms also includes any proper name of an object or phenomenon, which begins to be used as a common noun for the entire class of similar objects. Examples of eponyms are words such as " diapers, tampax, xerox, in modern speech used as a common noun.

The transition of the own trademark naming into the category of eponyms eliminates the value and uniqueness in the perception of the manufacturer's brand. So, American corporation Xerox, for the first time in 1947, which introduced the world to a device for copying documents, "etched" from of English language common noun xerox, replacing it with photocopier and photocopy. In Russian, the words " xerox, xerox, xerox and even " xerify" turned out to be more tenacious, since there is no more suitable word; " photocopy" and its derivatives are not very good options.

A similar situation with the product of the American multinational company Procter & Gamble - diapers Pampers. Any diapers from another company with similar moisture-absorbing qualities are called diapers.

Spelling of proper and common names

The common noun rule that regulates the spelling norm in Russian recommends writing with a lowercase letter: kid, grasshopper, dream, prosperity, secularization.

Onims also have their own spelling system, however, simple:

These nouns are usually capitalized: Tatyana Larina, Paris, Academician Koroleva street, dog Sharik.

When used with a generic word, onym forms its own name denoting a name trademark, events, establishments, enterprises, etc.; such naming is capitalized and enclosed in quotation marks: VDNKh metro station, Chicago musical, Eugene Onegin novel, Russian Booker award.

Each person daily uses several hundred nouns in his speech. However, not everyone will be able to answer the question of which category a particular word belongs to: proper names or common nouns, and whether there is a difference between them. Meanwhile, not only written literacy depends on this simple knowledge, but also the ability to correctly understand what is read, because often, only by reading a word, you can understand whether it is a name or just the name of a thing.

what is this

Before you figure out which nouns are called proper and which are common nouns, it is worth remembering what it is.

Nouns are words that answer the questions "What?", "Who?" and denoting the name of things or persons (“table”, “person”), they change according to declensions, genders, numbers and cases. In addition, words related to this part of speech are proper / common nouns.

The concept of about and own

Except for rare exceptions, all nouns belong to the category of either proper or common nouns.

Common nouns include summarized names of homogeneous things or phenomena that may differ from each other in some features, but will still be called one word. For example, the noun "toy" is a common noun, although it generalizes the names of various objects: cars, dolls, bears, and other things from this group. In Russian, as in most other languages, common nouns are always written with a small letter.

nouns are the names of individuals, things, places or persons that stand out. For example, the word "doll" is a common noun that refers to a whole category of toys, but the name of the popular brand of dolls "Barbie" is a proper name. All proper names are capitalized.
It is worth noting that common nouns, unlike proper nouns, carry a certain lexical meaning. For example, when “doll” is said, it becomes clear that we are talking about a toy, but when they simply call the name “Masha” outside the context of a common noun, it is not clear who or what it is - a girl, a doll, the name of a brand, hairdresser or chocolate bar.

Ethnonyms

As mentioned above, nouns are proper and common nouns. So far, linguists have not yet come to a consensus on the relationship between these two categories. There are 2 common views on this question: according to one, there is a clear dividing line between common nouns and proper nouns; according to another, the dividing line between these categories is not absolute due to the frequent transition of nouns from one category to another. Therefore, there are so-called "intermediate" words that do not belong to either proper or common nouns, although they have signs of both categories. These nouns include ethnonyms - words meaning the names of peoples, nationalities, tribes and other similar concepts.

Common nouns: examples and types

In the vocabulary of the Russian language, there are most common nouns. All of them are usually divided into four types.

1. Specific - denote objects or phenomena that can be counted (people, birds and animals, flowers). For example: "adult", "child", "thrush", "shark", "ash", "violet". Specific common nouns almost always have plural and singular forms and are combined with quantitative numerals: “an adult - two adults”, “one violet - five violets”.

2. Abstract - denote concepts, feelings, objects that cannot be counted: "love", "health", "wit". Most often, this type of common noun is used only in the singular. If, for one reason or another, a noun of this kind has acquired the plural ("fear - fears"), it loses its abstract meaning.

3. Real - denote substances that are homogeneous in composition, do not have separate objects: chemical elements(mercury), food (pasta), drugs (citramon) and other similar concepts. Real nouns are not countable, but they can be measured (kilogram of pasta). Words of this type of common noun have only one form of number: either plural or singular: “oxygen” is singular, “cream” is plural.

4. Collective - these are nouns, meaning a set of objects or persons of the same type, as a single, inseparable whole: “brotherhood”, “humanity”. Nouns of this kind are not countable and are used only in the singular form. However, with them you can use the words “a little”, “a few”, “little” and the like: a lot of children, how many infantry and others.

Proper nouns: examples and types

Depending on the lexical meaning, the following types of proper nouns are distinguished:

1. Anthroponyms - names, surnames, pseudonyms, nicknames and nicknames of people: Vasilyeva Anastasia,
2. Theonyms - names and names of deities: Zeus, Buddha.
3. Zoonyms - nicknames and nicknames of animals: dog Barbos, cat Marie.
4. All types of toponyms - geographical names, cities (Volgograd), reservoirs (Baikal), streets (Pushkin) and so on.
5. Aeronautonyms - the name of various space and aircraft: spaceship"Vostok", interorbital station "Mir".
6. Names of works of art, literature, cinema, TV programs: "Mona Lisa", "Crime and Punishment", "Vertical", "Yeralash".
7. Names of organizations, websites, brands: Oxford, Vkontakte, Milavitsa.
8. Names of holidays and other public events: Christmas, Independence Day.
9. Names unique phenomena Nature: Hurricane Isabelle.
10. Names of unique buildings and objects: cinema "Rodina", sports complex "Olympic".

Proper to common nouns and vice versa

Since the language is not something abstract and is constantly influenced by both external and internal factors, words often change their category: proper ones turn into common nouns, and common nouns turn into proper nouns. Examples of this are quite common. So the natural phenomenon "frost" - from a common noun turned into its own noun, the surname Frost. The process of transition of common nouns into proper ones is called onymization.

At the same time, the name of the famous German physicist, who was the first to discover X-rays, in the colloquial speech of the Russian language has long turned into the name of the study of something with the help of the “X-ray” radiation discovered by him. Such a process is called appellation, and such words are called eponyms.

How to distinguish

In addition to semantic differences, there are also grammatical ones that allow you to clearly distinguish between proper nouns and common nouns. The Russian language is quite practical in this regard. The category of common nouns, unlike proper ones, as a rule, has both plural and singular forms: “artist - artists”.

At the same time, another category is almost always used only in the singular: Picasso is the artist's surname, singular. However, there are exceptions when proper nouns can be used in the plural. Examples of this name, originally used in the plural: the village of Bolshiye Kabany. In this case, these proper nouns are often devoid of the singular: the mountains of the Carpathians.
Sometimes proper names can be used in the plural if they denote different persons or phenomena, but with identical names. For example: There are three Xenias in our class.

How do you spell

If everything is quite simple with writing common nouns: they are all written with a small letter, and otherwise you should follow the usual rules of the Russian language, then another category has some nuances that you need to know in order to correctly write proper nouns. Examples of incorrect spelling can often be found not only in the notebooks of negligent schoolchildren, but also in the documents of adults and respectable people.

To avoid such mistakes, you should learn a few simple rules:

1. All proper names, without exception, are capitalized, especially when it comes to nicknames legendary heroes: Richard the Lionheart. If a given name, surname or place name consists of two or more nouns, regardless of whether they are written separately or with a hyphen, each of these words must begin with a capital letter. An interesting example is the nickname of the main villain of the Harry Potter epic - the Dark Lord. Afraid to call him by his first name, the heroes called the evil wizard "He Who Must Not Be Named". In this case, all 4 words are capitalized, as this is the nickname of the character.

2. If there are articles, particles and other service particles of speech in the name or title, they are written with a small letter: Albrecht von Graefe, Leonardo da Vinci, but Leonardo DiCaprio. In the second example, the part "di" is capitalized, because in the original language it is written together with the surname Leonardo DiCaprio. This principle applies to many proper names of foreign origin. In eastern names, the particles “bey”, “zul”, “zade”, “pasha”, and the like, indicating the social status, regardless of whether they stand in the middle of the word or are written with a small letter at the end. The same principle applies to spelling proper names with particles in other languages. German "von", "zu", "auf"; Spanish "de"; Dutch "van", "ter"; French "des", "du", "de la".

3. The particles “San-”, “Sen-”, “Saint-”, “Ben-” located at the beginning of the surname of foreign origin are written with a capital and a hyphen (Saint-Gemen); after O, there is always an apostrophe and the next letter is capitalized (O'Henry). The part "Mac-" should be written in turn with a hyphen, but often it is written together due to the approximation of the spelling to the original: McKinley, but MacLane.

Having dealt once with this rather simple topic (what is a noun, types of nouns and examples), you can once and for all save yourself from stupid, but rather unpleasant spelling mistakes and the need to constantly look into the dictionary to check yourself.

Common nouns

Common nouns

Names opposed to proper ones (which are studied onomastics). The difference is not grammatical, but semantic: common nouns name classes of objects and phenomena, and own ones - unique realities; cf .: city and Tver. The common nouns used in the names become their own: the Zarya cinema, the Competitor store.

Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Under the editorship of prof. Gorkina A.P. 2006 .

See what "common nouns" are in other dictionaries:

See common nouns (noun in the article) ... Dictionary of linguistic terms

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Nouns that name an object according to its belonging to a given class of objects, as opposed to proper names. * * * COMMON NAMES COMMON NAMES, nouns that name an object according to its belonging to ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

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A noun (noun) is a part of speech denoting an object and answering the question "who" / "what". One of the main lexical categories; in sentences, the noun, as a rule, acts as a subject or object. ... ... Wikipedia

Books

• Hello Noun! , Rick Tatyana Gennadievna. This book will help you easily and joyfully learn the complex grammar rules associated with a noun. Traveling through the fabulous land of Speech, the heroes of the book in an entertaining way study cases, ...