There are two kinds of noun — proper and common.

Proper nouns

A proper noun names a particular object, person, or place, or group of objects, persons, or places. It always begins with a capital letter: Ottawa is a proper noun.

Common nouns

These may be concrete, naming people or things that you can touch, see, hear, taste, or smell, such as rock, geologist, or abstract, naming things you cannot perceive directly with your senses, such as geology, education. Always choose a concrete over an abstract noun.

Common nouns used as an essential part of a name (i.e. as generic terms) are capitalized: Shuswap Lake. When the generic term is used in the plural, it is not commonly capitalized: Shuswap and Okanagan lakes; lakes Huron and Ontario; Pekisko and Shunda formations.

See 'Capitalization' for details.

Collective nouns

Collective nouns such as board, cabinet, commission, committee, council, government, group, majority, number, and series take their verb or pronoun in either the singular or plural, depending upon the context in which they are used. Use the plural when the action is taken by the individual members considered in their separate capacities, and use the singular when the group acts or thinks as a whole:

Government

Although the singular form of the word Government is preferred and is always correct, whether singular or plural is used, the verb and pronoun must agree, and the writer must be consistent:

Group, Series

These are singular when used following the North American Stratigraphic Code (see Appendix F), but otherwise can be singular or plural:

Limestone not limestones (as a collective):

Majority

Number