We know that a noun can be a person, place, or thing. Today we will learn about the difference between common nouns and proper nouns.

A proper noun names a specific person, place, or thing. The word building is a common noun, but Empire State Building is a proper noun because it tells us exactly what building we are talking about.

The most important rule when it comes to proper nouns is that we ALWAYS capitalize them. Just like you always write your own name with a capital letter, the names of other people, places, and things must begin with a capital letter.

Now we will go over types of proper nouns that you may see. The first type of proper noun is names of people. A person's name should always be capitalized. Let's look at some examples. This is Rosa Parks, an important civil rights leader. Both her first and last names are capitalized.

This is Martin Luther King Jr., another important figure of the civil rights movement. Each part of his name is capitalized.

This is Claudette Colvin, a brave woman who fought against segregation on buses. If the previous sentence read, "This woman fought against segregation on buses," we would not need to capitalize the word woman. The word woman does not let us know exactly who is being discussed. Claudette Colvin is the name of a specific person and should be capitalized.

Many people in Montgomery, Alabama refused to ride city buses in order to protest segregation. Both the city (Montgomery) and the state (Alabama) need to be capitalized because they are the names of specific places. All cities and states must be capitalized because they are all proper nouns.

The civil rights movement took place for many years as people of color in the United States fought against injustice. United States needs to be capitalize because it is the name of a country. It is a proper noun.

Many sit-ins took place in Nashville, Tennessee and other places across the country to protest segregation. The words Nashville and Tennessee are proper nouns because they name specific places while the word places is not capitalized because it is a common noun.