It is possible for a noun to be both common and proper, or common and collective, or proper and collective?
1 Answer
Yes, there are many nouns that function as more than one type.
Explanation:
It is possible for a noun to be both common and proper, or common and collective, or proper and collective?
Examples of nouns that can be both common and proper:
- common noun = apple
- proper noun = Mott's Apple Juice or Apple Inc.
- common noun = air
- proper noun = Air Canada or (Nike) Air Jordan
- common noun = blue
- proper noun = "The Blue Boy" by Gainsborough or "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin
A collective noun is a noun used to group people or things in a descriptive way. Collective nouns are an informal part of language; with the exception of nouns that are words for groups (crowd, herd, bouquet, etc.), any noun that suits the context can function as a collective noun.
The noun "crowd" is a collective noun and it's also a common noun, as are "herd" and "bouquet". They are general words for any group of people, animals, or flowers.
Other common nouns that aren't inherently collective can function as a collective noun; for example:
- The noun "table" is just a common noun in, "Please set the table."
- The noun "table" is a collective noun in "the table of contents".
- The noun "school" is just a common noun in, "I left my book in school."
- The noun "school" is a collective noun in "a school of fish".
Proper nouns are rarely used as collective nouns, but collective nouns are informal. If it suits the context of the situation, then it can function as a collective noun; for example:
- a Coleman of beer
- a Nile of lies
- a Wikipedia of information
