Grammar: Word classes: Nouns

Proper nouns Back

Names for places and institutions

There are two ways of referring to a place: you can use a common noun such as area, or country, or you can use the name of the area or country, ie a proper noun:

Can you imagine a country which has 237 different types of cheese?
Grandpa observed that France has 237 different types of cheese.

Most names for places and institutions are singular nouns, and therefore a singular verb is normally used, even when the place name looks like a plural noun:

The United States is a wealthy nation.

The names for places and institutions follow a number of different patterns. Here are some of the most common:

proper noun Japan
the + proper noun The Yangtze
adjective + proper noun North Korea
the + geographical feature + proper noun The River Nile
the + proper noun + geographical feature The Sahara Desert
the + institution + of prepositional phrase The Bank of China
the + adjective/noun modifier + institution The Space Museum

Here are some common names of places and institutions:

Areas in Hong Kong

[ ] Causeway Bay
[ ] Central
[ ] Happy Valley
[ ] Hong Kong Island
[ ] Kowloon
The New Territories
The Outlying Islands

Buildings and structures

The Coliseum
The Cultural Centre
The Queen Elizabeth II Stadium
The Space Museum
[ ] City Hall
Commercial organisations

The Jockey Club
The Ocean Centre
The Peninsula Hotel
The South China Morning Post
[ ] Hong Kong Bank
[ ] Jusco
[ ] Park'n'Shop

Public organisations

[ ] Hong Kong University
[ ] Queen Mary Hospital
[ ] Stanley Jail
[ ] Tak Ching Primary School   
The University of Hong Kong

Recreational facilities

[ ] Disney Land
[ ] Kowloon Park
[ ] Ocean Park
[ ] Victoria Park

Harbours, bays, rivers and lakes

[ ] Plover Cove Reservoir
The Shing Mun River
[ ] Silvermine Bay
[ ] Tolo Harbour
[ ] Victoria Harbour

Oceans, seas and deserts

The Pacific Ocean
The Sahara Desert
The South China Sea

 Mountains and hills

The Himalayas
[ ] Mount Everest
[ ] Mount Fuji
[ ] Victoria Peak / The Peak
Countries, etc

[ ] China   
[ ] England
[ ] Hong Kong
[ ] Japan

Note these exceptions (which are typically plural or which contain a word like republic or kingdom):

The Netherlands
The People's Republic of China
The Philippines
The Republic of South Africa
The United Kingdom
The United States

 Continents and islands

[ ] Asia
[ ] Australia
[ ] Europe
[ ] Lamma Island
[ ] Lantau Island
The Spratleys


For information about some of the problems that students have with place names, click here:

Student problems

Tell me more ...

What are proper nouns?
Names of people
 Names of places and institutions

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