Common and Proper Nouns — Answers
Answer sheet with model answers and success criteria for the 3rd Grade nouns worksheet.
Common and Proper Nouns — Answers
Part A: Spot the noun type
A common noun names any person, place or thing (dog, city). A proper noun names a particular one and starts with a capital letter (Rex, Houston). Circle the correct answer.
- Acity
- BDallas
- Cbuilding
- Driver
Answer: Dallas
Dallas names one particular city, so it is a proper noun and needs a capital letter.
- AMonday
- BEmma
- Cteacher
- DMexico
Answer: teacher
"teacher" names a kind of person, not one particular person.
- Adog
- Bpark
- CSaturday
- Dball
Answer: Saturday
Days of the week are proper nouns.
- AAustin
- BJanuary
- CMrs. Lee
- Dschool
Answer: school
"school" is a general word for a kind of place.
Part B: Fix the capital letters
Rewrite each sentence with capital letters where they belong. Hint: look for names of people, places, days and months.
Answer: My friend Liam lives in El Paso.
Liam and El Paso are proper nouns. "My" starts the sentence.
Answer: We visited the Alamo in July.
Place names and months are proper nouns.
Answer: On Tuesday, Mr. Khan read us a book about Egypt.
Days, titles with names, and countries are proper nouns.
Answer: The cat sat on the mat.
No proper nouns here — only the first word needs a capital.
Part C: Match them up
- country
- girl
- day
- city
- month
- Olivia
- San Antonio
- Mexico
- March
- Friday
Answer: country → Mexico; girl → Olivia; day → Friday; city → San Antonio; month → March
Part D: Your turn
Model answer: On Saturday I went to the beach with Dad. (Saturday = proper noun; beach, Dad as a name = Dad is used as a name here so it is capitalized.)
Success criteria:
- Two complete sentences
- At least one proper noun per sentence, with a capital letter
- At least one common noun per sentence
- Proper nouns underlined
Marking tips
- Give credit for correct method even when the final answer slips — the working shows where the thinking went right.
- For open-ended tasks, use the success criteria as a checklist rather than looking for one "right" answer.
- Celebrate what went well first, then pick one thing to work on next.