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Proper Nouns: Niagara Falls, Dracula, The Federal Bureau of Investigation, The Great Depression

This document discusses proper nouns, gerunds, and collective nouns. [1] Proper nouns are always capitalized when referring to specific people, places, events, or groups. [2] Gerunds are verb forms ending in "-ing" that function as nouns, such as "sleeping" or "studying". [3] Collective nouns refer to a group as a whole but can sometimes be treated as plural to emphasize individual members.

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46 views

Proper Nouns: Niagara Falls, Dracula, The Federal Bureau of Investigation, The Great Depression

This document discusses proper nouns, gerunds, and collective nouns. [1] Proper nouns are always capitalized when referring to specific people, places, events, or groups. [2] Gerunds are verb forms ending in "-ing" that function as nouns, such as "sleeping" or "studying". [3] Collective nouns refer to a group as a whole but can sometimes be treated as plural to emphasize individual members.

Uploaded by

Nina
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Proper Nouns

If a noun names a specific person or place, or a particular event or group, it is called


a proper noun and is always capitalized. Some examples are Eleanor Roosevelt,
Niagara Falls, Dracula, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Great Depression.

Unfortunately, some writers assign proper-noun status indiscriminately to words,


sprinkling capital letters freely throughout their writing. For example, the Manhattan
Project is correctly capitalized because it is a historic project, the name given to the
specific wartime effort to design and build the first nuclear weapons. But the common
noun project should not be capitalized when referring to a club's project to clean up the
campus, for example. Similarly, the Great Depression should be capitalized because it
refers to the specific period of economic failure that began with the stock market
collapse in 1929. When the word depression refers to other economic hard times,
however, it is not a proper noun; it is a common noun and should not be capitalized.
Some flexibility in capitalizing nouns is acceptable. A writer may have a valid reason for
capitalizing a particular term. For example, some companies have style guides that
dictate capital letters for job titles such as manager. But often the capitalization beyond
the basic guidelines is an effort to give a word an air of importance, and you should
avoid it.

Verbs Used as Nouns


Sometimes in English, a verb is used as a noun. When the verb form is altered and it
serves the same function as a noun in the sentence, it is called a gerund.

Gerunds

A noun created from the ‐ing form of a verb can act as a subject or an object in a


sentence.

Sleeping sometimes serves as an escape from studying.

The gerunds sleeping and studying are ‐ing forms of the verbs sleep and study.


Sleeping is a noun functioning as the subject of this sentence, and studying is a noun
functioning as an object.

Problem Gerunds

Gerunds can sometimes be difficult to use correctly in a sentence. What problems can
you have with gerunds?
When a noun or pronoun precedes a gerund, use the possessive case of the noun or
pronoun.

Jana's sleeping was sometimes an escape from studying.

To test for correct usage, substitute the noun in place of the gerund. For example, in the
preceding sentence, replace the gerund sleeping with the noun slumber. Read these
sentences aloud and listen for the difference.

Jana's slumber was sometimes an escape from studying.

NOT  Jana slumber was sometimes an escape from studying.

Even when you think that the word before the gerund looks like an object, use the
possessive case.

Jana was annoyed by Bill's studying.

NOT Jana was annoyed by Bill studying

Collective Nouns
A word that stands for a group of things is called a collective noun. In fact, the
word group itself is a collective noun. Here are a few others: family, club, team,
committee, staff, furniture, jury, Congress, audience, herd.

Usually these nouns are treated as singular because the emphasis is on the action of
the entire unit rather than its individual parts.

The team is going on the bus.

The committee wants to find a solution to the problem.

But when you want to emphasize the individual parts of a group, you may treat a
collective noun as plural.

The team have argued about going on the bus.

The committee want different solutions to the problem.

If the plural sounds awkward, try rewording.

The team members have argued about going on the bus.

The committee members want different solutions to the problem.

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