Common Nouns Examples

A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. There are two types of nouns, common nouns and proper nouns.

A common noun names a general person, place, thing, or idea. It does not refer to someone or something specifically.

girl, store, school, street, freedom

This is different from a proper noun that would refer to a specific person, place, or thing (i.e. Jennifer, Wal-Mart, Johnson High School, Elm Street).

More Examples of Common Nouns:

People: boy, man, teacher, nurse, firefighter, president

Places: house, yard, building, church, city, country, beach

Things: desk, phone, book, candle, pencil, basket, dog

Ideas: confidence, sadness, courage, speed

Common Nouns Used in Sentences

The common nouns are in bold.

1. For breakfast, the children ate cereal with toast and orange juice.
2. Could you take out the trash and help clean out the car?
3. Mr. Jones gives us homework every day of the week except Friday.
4. This book about Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of the best that I have checked out from the library.
5. The dog sat very still until the girl gave him the bone.
6. For school, we will need to have paper, pencils, crayons, and a backpack.
7. I really like the song that is playing on the radio.
8. The boy took his fishing rod to the pond hoping to catch a fish.
9. The button has fallen off of my shirt, and I think it fell in the grass.
10. Let's pick out a tall tree for Christmas this year.
11. The father stood in line to buy lunch for the three hungry girls.
12. The dress that Mrs. Hale wore to class today has dragonflies on it because we are studying insects.
13. Let's pick the red flowers for Mom.