A Common Noun is a name that is not given to one of a class to distinguish it from others of the same class. All but proper nouns, you see, are called common nouns.

You have seen that many common nouns are class nouns; that is, that they are applied to each of a class. These are the kind of common nouns that the name fits best. But the following exercise will show that there are other kinds.

Exercise 167

Select the proper nouns in the following list of nouns. What kind are the others?

Divide the common nouns in the list into these three classes: (1) class nouns, (2) those that name a quantity of stuff or material, (3) those that name some attribute such as quality, condition, or action.

horse, continent, Australia, doth, girl, animal, bravery, London, England, Englishman, salt, Cinderella, weakness, chair, Ulysses Grant, sickness, flour, exercise, month, book, sugar, The Jungle Book, October, weariness, honesty, horse, Methodist, wheat, Jupiter, day, Monday, season, winter, beauty, butter, planet, earth, Republican, youth, Christmas, Democrat, patience, water, Minnesota, state, artist, Lorado Taft, molasses.