Grammar: Word classes: Nouns

Proper nouns

Names of people

There are two main ways of referring to a person in English: you can use a common noun such as sister, or you can use the person's name by itself as a proper noun, eg Bozo, Dotty. 

Sometimes nouns which refer to relationships between family members are used as proper nouns, in which case they are always capitalised:

Sometimes titles are used before a person's surname to indicate their social or marital status. The most common of these are Mr Chan, Mrs Wong, Miss Lee, Ms Tong. In certain occupations, people sometimes have a title which indicates their position in the organisation, eg in a hospital Sister Mok, Nurse Ng, Doctor Tak; in the police force, Constable Tao, Inspector Cheung; at a university, Dr Tse, Professor Yuen.

Some titles can be used by themselves without the name, eg in a hospital, Sister [ ], Nurse [ ], Doctor [ ]; in the police force, Constable [ ], Inspector [ ]; at a university, Professor [ ]. It is not common to address someone as Mr [ ] or Mrs [ ] without the surname, although Miss [ ] is sometimes used, especially in schools. The formal way to address a man or woman is Sir or Madam, and if you are addressing a large group of men and women, then you say Ladies and Gentlemen.

For information about some of the problems that students have with English names, click here.