What nouns don't start with a capital?

Answer 1

In the English language most nouns don't start with a capital.

A noun is a word that refers to a person, place, object, event, substance, idea, feeling or quality.

For example, in the sentence: "I gave the book to the teacher." the words book and teacher are nouns, but they don't start with a capital in this sentence.

Of course, all sentences start with a capital. If someone says: "Teacher. May I borrow that book?", the initial letter of the word 'teacher' is capitalized, not because it is a noun, but because it is the first word of the sentence.

There are rules which tell us which nouns need capitals. Unless those rules say that a particular noun or word needs a capital, then that noun doesn't start with a capital.

Some of the rules about nouns that always start with a capital, with examples:

• Personal names: Jonas, Kylie
• Continents and country names: Africa, Zambia
• Cities and towns: New York, Cape Town, Basra, Jerusalem
• Street names: High Street, Willow Drive.
• Names of languages: Arabic, English, Japanese, Wu
• Religions: Jewish, Roman Catholic, Islam, Zen Buddhism
• Months and days of the week: December, Monday
• Titles: Mr, Dr
• Planet names: Jupiter

Answer 2

Nouns that don't start with a capital letter include common nouns that are not at the beginning of a sentence, such as "dog," "apple," "car," and "tree."