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Are school subjects proper nouns or common nouns?
Question
Are school subjects proper nouns or common nouns? In my workplace yesterday, we had an argument where I maintained that school subjects are not proper nouns because their initial letters are not capitalized, except when they refer to courses. What's the answer?
—
Victor
,
Nigeria
Answer
The names of school subjects are typically common nouns. School subjects that are the names of languages, such as English or German, are proper nouns and should be capitalized. The names of specific courses are proper nouns and should be capitalized. Below are some examples showing what should be capitalized and what should not.
School subjects that are common nouns:
- geometry
- science
- biology
- reading
- history
- anthropology
School subjects that are proper nouns:
- English
- German
- French
- Arabic
- Latin
- Chinese
Names of specific courses (proper nouns):
- Discrete Mathematics
- English 102: Creative Non-fiction
- Physical Anthropology
- Philosophy 265: Meaning and Truth
- Math 301
- American History 1400-1800
I hope this helps.
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