Proper nouns: examples. Nouns - proper and common nouns. Nouns

What is a noun? If such a question was asked at a Russian language lesson, and the student does not know the answer, then it's time to sit down for morphology. Morphology is that part of the science of language that studies parts of speech and knows what a noun is. In fact, she knows everything about him.

Morphology answers this question as follows: “A noun is all the names of objects!”. Objects in grammar are called things and people, natural phenomena, plants and animals, in general, everything that answers the question “who” or “what”. Inanimate objects answer the question “what”, in grammar they are called inanimate nouns. The question "who" is asked about living beings: people, animals, insects. They are animate nouns.

We traveled along the Volga on a large motor ship Zarya.

All other nouns are called common nouns and are written with a small,

About some of them we say: "he". Or we can substitute the word "mine". These nouns are masculine. About others, we say: “she”, “mine”. They belong to the feminine gender. What is a neuter noun? There are some names of objects that are neither feminine nor masculine. We will say about them: “it” or “mine”. They belong to the middle class.

For example, the nouns "uncle" and "man", "child" and "boy", "horse" and "bear", "table" and "bowler" are masculine. The nouns “mother” and “grandmother”, “girl” and “neighbor”, “pan” and “lamp”, “dog” and “bear” are feminine. "Tree" and "wheel", "sun" and "seaside", "miracle" and "child", "taxi" and "domino" - belong to the middle gender.

But among them there are those whose genus depends on what gender they call the person at the moment.

For example: Our Julia is a big ignoramus! (female). The teacher said that Dima is an ignoramus (m.r.). "Ignorant" - noun generic, such nouns end in "a" or "i".

For example: Yasha, sleepyhead, you overslept again! (m.r.). Marina is so sleepy, she is often late for the first lesson! (female).

Sometimes it is not easy to determine the gender, especially if the word is of foreign origin. For example, "jelly", "relay", "coat" are neuter, and "coffee" and "penalty" are masculine. But "kohlrabi" and "avenue" are feminine. If you have difficulty in determining the gender, it is better to refer to the dictionary.

In the volume of one article, one can only partially answer the question “what is a noun”.

This topic is for several articles, especially if you remember that they change by gender, number and case, are divided into declensions and are written according to the rules.

The main members in a sentence or its basis are the subject and the predicate. They are closely related to each other. The subject answers questions of the nominative case: who or what. For example: "Autumn has come (what?)". "Students (who?) prepared for the lesson." Most often, the subject is expressed by a noun in the nominative case. "Densely went (what?) Snow."

The predicate is the second main member of the sentence, which, as a rule, is associated with the subject and answers the questions: what does the subject do, what happens to it, who is it, what is it? Predicates are simple verbal and compound.

A compound nominal predicate usually consists of a linking verb and a nominal part that expresses the main lexical meaning of the predicate.

In the compound, the nominal part can also be expressed by a noun. For example: "She's mine". "She was my sister." In the first sentence, "sister" is in the nominative case and is a predicate, and in the second sentence, the noun in the instrumental case "sister" is the nominal part of the compound predicate "was a sister."

The predicate can be a noun with or without, standing in the indirect case. For example: "He's penniless." Here "without a penny" is a predicate. It can also be expressed as a whole phrase, in which the main word is a noun in the case (in the sense of a qualitative assessment). For example: "This young man is tall." In this sentence, the phrase "high growth" is a predicate.

Minor members of a sentence expressed by a noun

The words that explain the main and other members in the sentence are called members of the sentence. According to grammatical meanings, an addition and a circumstance are distinguished.

Most often, a noun in a sentence is an object. This is a minor term denoting a subject and answering questions of indirect cases. For example: "Even at school, I chose my (what?) Profession." The noun "profession" in this sentence is in the accusative case and is an object.

It can also be expressed as an indivisible phrase, which includes nouns in oblique cases. For example: "For the winter holidays, Masha went to her grandfather with". Here the phrase "with grandmother" is an addition.

A special kind of definition - the application is always expressed by a noun, which is placed in the same case as the word being defined. For example: "An old watchman appeared on the threshold." The noun "old man" is an application.

Another minor member of the sentence - the definition, denoting the signs of the subject, answers the questions: what and whose? It can also be expressed by a noun or a syntactically complete phrase (noun and adjective). For example: "Hunting (what?) With a dog is beautiful." The noun "with a dog" in this sentence is a definition. Or: "A woman (what?) Of tall stature entered the room." Here, “high growth” acts as a definition.

The circumstance answers the questions: how, why, when, why? It explains the predicate or other members of the sentence and denotes a sign of an action or another sign. It can also be expressed as a noun. For example: "Masha (how?) looked at the book with curiosity." "Three girls under the window were spinning (when?) late in the evening." "For joy (why?) she clapped her hands."

Sources:

Noun as a part of speech

The noun is one of the most frequently used parts of speech in Russian. It is used to designate objects, but it can perform other functions. What characteristics might she have?

The noun, which is often called simply a noun, is a special part of speech, the range of application of which in Russian is very wide. Quite often it is used to denote various kinds of objects (for example,), but it can also denote actions (for example, running), states (for example, fear) or qualities (for example,) of objects and persons. All these variants of nouns are united by the fact that they must answer the question "Who?" or "What?"

Morphological and syntactic features of a noun

Among the morphological features of this part are three main categories - gender, case and number. Moreover, each of these features has a variable character, although the degree of this variability may vary. So, in Russian a noun can belong to one of three genders (masculine, feminine or neuter), be in one of six cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental or prepositional), have the form of one of two numbers (singular or plural). In this case, the change in cases and numbers is usually called declension.

To the number syntactic features this part of speech includes the positions that a noun can occupy in a sentence. So, most often it acts as a subject, informing about what or who is the subject of the action being performed. However, it can also act as an addition, definition (mostly consistent with the rest of the sentence through prepositions), circumstance (for example, circumstances of the place) and other members of the proposal.

Other signs of a noun

The next group of features that are usually distinguished in relation to the noun are the so-called lexical features. They are divided into two main groups: proper names, denoting the names and names of unique objects, and common nouns, denoting general categories of objects that are similar to each other. So, Murka, Ivan Ivanovich, Elbrus can serve as an example of proper names, while a cat, a man and a mountain will be among the common names.

In addition, all objects denoted by nouns are divided into animate, that is, they are representatives of wildlife, and inanimate, that is, related to inanimate nature. It is quite easy to distinguish between them: the first answer the question "Who?", the second answer the question "What?". In addition, nouns are sometimes subdivided into concrete, material, abstract, collective and singular, depending on the class of objects they designate.

Own and common noun

OWN nouns denote - names, surnames, patronymics, nicknames of animals, geographical names, titles of books, newspapers, magazines ( Moscow, Volga, Maria, Kashtanka, Alexei Maksimovich).
common nouns nouns - the name of objects and phenomena ( student, textbook, country, forest, dog).

Animated and inanimate

ANIMATED Nouns answer the question WHO? and name people and animals ( teacher, student, sister, cat, bird).
inanimate Nouns answer the question WHAT? and name inanimate objects cloud, forest, water, notebook, bus).

Number of nouns

THE ONLY THING number - stands for one item ( letter, child). Some nouns are used only in the singular ( milk, kindness, Kaluga, singing, youth, France).
MULTIPLE number - refers to several items ( letters, children). Some nouns are used only in plural (glasses, sleigh, name day, scissors, gate, Alps).

gender of a noun

GENUS- a constant attribute of a noun. Nouns do not change by gender.

MALE- he is mine ( horse, car).
FEMALE- She is mine ( rye, earth).
AVERAGE- it's mine village, ring).

RULE: to determine the gender of a noun, you need to put this noun in the initial form: with balls - a ball (m. R.), on the ground - land (f. R.), by the sea - the sea (cf. R.).

COMMON GENDER- he, mine, this / she, mine, this ( crybaby, orphan).

Spelling "Soft sign (b)after sizzling at the endnouns"

Is written- feminine ( mouse, rye, oven, lies, power).
Not spelled- in the masculine garage, reeds, comrade, borscht).

A soft sign after a hissing noun at the end indicates that it is a feminine noun.

Declension of a noun

declension of nouns- this is a change of words in cases. The case is determined by questions.

Cases and questions:

To make it easier to remember questions of cases, you can substitute auxiliary words.

Nominative case (is) who? What?
Genitive case (no) whom? what?
Dative case (I give, glad) to whom? what?
Accusative case (I see) whom? What?
Instrumental case (satisfied, admiring) who? how?
Prepositional case (I think, I speak) about whom? about what?

RULE: To determine the case of a noun, you need to find the word with which this noun is connected in meaning, and put a case question from it.
EXAMPLE: The old man was fishing with a net. (A.S. Pushkin)

Caught (with what?) with a net (T. p.); caught (whom?) Fish (V.p.).

NOUN INITIAL FORM- nominative form singular (always determined in morphological parsing).

Three declensions of nouns

In Russian, nouns that have the same endings in the same cases are divided into three groups - declension.

TO 1st declension include names feminine nouns And male with endings -A, -I in the nominative singular (ruler, earth, mom, dad, uncle).
Co. 2nd declension include names null masculine nouns And neuter with endings -O, -E in the nominative singular ( lesson, day, mirror, field).
TO 3rd declension relate null ending feminine nouns in the nominative singular and ending in soft sign (blizzard, carrot, thing, daughter).

RULE: to determine the declension of a noun in the plural, you need to put this noun in the initial form, determine its gender and highlight the ending.

SPELLING "Letters E and I in the case endings of nouns"

To correctly write an unstressed case ending of a noun, you need:
1. Determine the case.
2. Determine the declination.
3. Remember the ending of the nouns of this declension in the right case: a letter (to whom?) to grandmother (1st cl., D. p., singular, -e); to ride (on what?) on a bicycle (2nd cl., P. p., singular, -e).
4. Check the unstressed case ending with the stressed ending of the noun of the same declension: thinking about the Motherland (about the land); trees in hoarfrost (in silver); I saw in the hole (in the steppe).

SPELLING "Letters O and E after hissing and C in the endings of nouns"

After hissing And C in the endings of nouns in the instrumental case, the vowel is written under stress ABOUT, and without stress - a vowel E: a doctor - a task, a chick - a bird.

Morphological analysis

1. Part of speech. What does it mean to answer the question.
2. Initial form ( Nominative case singular).
3. Immutable signs: animate or inanimate; own or common noun; gender (male, female, neuter); declination (1,2,3).
4. Variables: case, number.
4. Role in the proposal.

EXAMPLE OF ORAL REVIEW

The hunter saw a squirrel.
1. Squirrel - a noun. Designates an object, answers the question of whom?
2. Initial form - protein.
3. Animated, common noun. Female, 1st declination.
4. Used in the singular, in the accusative case.

5. The offer is minor member sentences, explains the predicate: I saw (whom?) A squirrel.

EXAMPLE OF REGISTRATION IN A NOTEBOOK

Squirrel - noun, whom ?, n. f. - squirrel, soul, nat., female, 1st class, singular, VP, second. member (addition).

As you can see, the noun is the most comprehensive part of speech. She immediately describes a large number of things in this world, names, events and other things. Also, its features allow for even greater clarification.

noun e is an independent significant part of speech that combines words that

1) have a generalized meaning of objectivity and answer the questions who? or what?;

2) are proper or common nouns, animate or inanimate, have a permanent gender and non-permanent (for most nouns) signs of number and case;

3) in the proposal most often act as subjects or additions, but can be any other members of the proposal.

Noun- this is a part of speech, in the selection of which the grammatical features of words come to the fore. As for the meaning of nouns, this is the only part of speech that can mean anything: an object (table), a person (boy), an animal (cow), a sign (depth), an abstract concept (conscience), an action (singing) , relation (equality). In terms of meaning, these words are united by the fact that you can ask them the question who? or what?; this, in fact, is their objectivity.

Common nouns designate objects without distinguishing them from the class of the same type (city, river, girl, newspaper).

Proper nouns designate objects, distinguishing them from the class of homogeneous objects, individualizing them (Moscow, Volga, Masha, Izvestia). Proper names must be distinguished from proper names - ambiguous names of individualized objects ("Evening Moscow"). Proper names do not necessarily include a proper name (Moscow State University).

Animate and inanimate nouns

Nouns have a permanent morphological sign of animation.

The sign of animateness of nouns is closely connected with the concept of living / inanimate. Nevertheless, animation is not a rank in meaning, but a proper morphological feature.

Animation as a morphological feature also has formal means of expression. First, animateness / inanimateness is expressed by the endings of the noun itself:

1) animate nouns have the same endings. numbers V. p. and R. p., and for nouns husband. genus, this also applies to units. number;

2) inanimate nouns have the same endings. numbers V. p. and I. p., and for nouns husband. genus, this also applies to units. number.

The animacy of most nouns reflects a certain state of affairs in extralinguistic reality: animate nouns are mainly called living beings, and inanimate - inanimate objects, however, there are cases of violation of this pattern:

fluctuation by animation	An object cannot be both alive and non-living at the same time:
alive but inanimate	1) aggregates of living beings: (see)armies, crowds, peoples ;
	2) plants, mushrooms: (gather)chanterelles ;


inanimate but animated	1) human toys: (see)dolls, nesting dolls, tumblers ;
inanimate but animated	1) human toys: (see)dolls, nesting dolls, tumblers ;
	2) figures of some games: (play out)kings, queens ;
	3) deceased: (see)dead, drowned , Butdead body (inanimate);
	4) fictional creatures: (see)mermaids, goblin, brownies.

Nouns have a constant morphological gender and refer to male, female or neuter.

The masculine, feminine and neuter gender includes words with the following compatibility:

Some nouns with the ending -a, denoting signs, properties of persons, in I. p. have a double characterization by gender, depending on the gender of the designated person:

your ignoramus has come

your-I'm ignorant came-a.

Such nouns belong to the common gender.

Nouns only plural (cream, scissors) do not belong to any of the genders, since in the plural formal differences between nouns of different genders are not expressed (cf .: desks - tables).

Nouns change by numbers and cases. Most nouns have singular and plural forms ( city - cities, village - villages). However, some nouns have either only the singular form (for example, peasantry, asphalt, burning), or only the plural form (for example, scissors, railings, weekdays, Luzhniki).

Case as a morphological feature of nouns

Nouns change in cases, that is, they have a non-permanent morphological sign of number.

There are 6 cases in Russian: nominative (I. p.), genitive (R. p.), dative (D. p.), accusative (V. p.), instrumental (T. p.), prepositional (P. p.). P.). These case forms are diagnosed in the following contexts:

I. p.who is this? What?

R. p. no one? what?

D. p.glad to whom? what?

V. p. see who? What?

T. p.proud of who? how?

P. p. thinking about whom? how?

The endings of different cases are different depending on which declension the noun belongs to.

Noun declension

Changing nouns in cases is called declension.

TO I declension include nouns husband. and wives. genus with the ending I. p. units. numbers -а(-я), including words ending in -iya: mom-a, dad-a, earth-i, lecture-i (lectij-a). Words with a stem ending in a hard consonant (hard variant), a soft consonant (soft variant) and with a stem in - and j have some differences in endings, for example:

case	Singular
case	hard option	soft option	On - and I
Im.p.	countries - A	Earth -I	Army -I
R.p.	countries - s	Earth -And	Army -And
D.p.	countries - e	Earth -e	Army -And
V.p.	countries - at	Earth -Yu	Army -Yu
etc.	countries -Ouch (-oy )	Earth -to her (-yoyu )	Army -to her (-her )
P.p.	countries -e	Earth -e	Army -And

Co. II declension include nouns husband. gender with a zero ending I. p., including words in -y, and nouns m. and cf. kind with the ending -o (-e), including words in -e: table-, genius-, small town-o, window-o, floor-e, peni-e (penij-e).

TO III declension include nouns of women. genus with zero ending in I. p .: dust-, night-.

In addition to nouns that have endings in only one of these declensions, there are words that have some endings from one declension, and some from another. They are called dissimilar. These are 10 words for -mya (burden, time, stirrup, tribe, seed, name, flame, banner, udder, crown) and path.

In Russian there are so-called indeclinable nouns. These include many common nouns and own borrowings (coat, Tokyo), Russian surnames in -y, -ih, -vo (Petrovykh, Dolgikh, Durnovo). They are usually described as words without endings.

Morphological analysis of a noun

The noun is parsed according to the following plan:

I. Part of speech. General value. Initial form (nominative singular).

II. Morphological features:

1. Permanent signs: a) proper or common noun, b) animate or inanimate, c) gender (male, female, neuter, general), d) declension.
2. Variable signs: a) case, b) number.

III. syntactic role.

Sample morphological parsing of a noun

Two ladies ran up to Luzhin and helped him up; he began to knock the dust off his coat with his palm (according to V. Nabokov).

I. ladies- noun;

initial form - lady.

II. Permanent signs: narits., odush., wives. genus, I class;

non-permanent signs: pl. number, I. p.

III. ran up(Who?) ladies (subject part).

I.(To) Luzhin- noun;

initial form - Luzhin;

II. Constant signs: own., soul., husband. genus, I class;

non-permanent features: units. number, D. p.;

III. ran up(to whom?) .underline ( border-bottom: 1px dashed blue; ) to Luzhin(addition).

I. palm- noun;

initial form - palm;

II. Constant signs: narits., inanimate., wives. genus, I class;

non-permanent features: units. number, etc.;

III. Began to shoot down(how?) palm(addition).

I. Dust- noun;

initial form - dust;

II. Constant signs: narits., inanimate., wives. genus, III class;

non-permanent features: units. number, V. p.;

III. Began to shoot down(What?) dust(addition).

I. Coat- noun;

initial form - coat;

II. Constant signs: nav., inanimate, cf. genus, uninclined;

non-permanent signs: the number is not determined by the context, R. p .;

III. Began to shoot down(why?) with a coat(addition).

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, you can use the words “a little”, “a few”, “little” and the like with them: 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 spacecraft and aircraft: the Vostok spacecraft, the Mir interorbital station.
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 of unique natural phenomena: Hurricane Isabel.
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 the nicknames of 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 can serve as 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 pointing to social status particles “bey”, “zul”, “zade”, “pasha”, and the like, 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.