2nd Grade Common and Proper Nouns Worksheets
A common noun names any person, place, or thing: girl, city, dog. A proper noun names one specific person, place, or thing and always starts with a capital letter: Maya, Chicago, Rex. Second graders sort words into the two groups and learn which ones earn a capital.
Free printable PDF, aligned to Common Core L.2.2.a. One skill per page, answer key on page two.
Every sheet is one of a kind and prints with a version code, so you can reprint the exact same one later. New version every click.
The kind of words you'll sort
Write each word from the bank in the correct column. Give every proper noun its capital letter when you write it.
ThursdayWednesdaycountryZoeballstateAishabeach
Columns: Common nouns and Proper nouns. "state" belongs under common nouns; "Aisha" belongs under proper nouns.
Every print draws a fresh mix of word lists at this level, so a make-up test or a second sibling gets a different sheet.
What's on each sheet
- Sorting. Write each word from the bank in the correct column. Give every proper noun its capital letter when you write it. 14 words per page.
Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.
How to teach this
Sorting works better than defining here, which is why this worksheet is a two-column sort. Seed it with pairs your child knows personally: our school and its actual name, our street and its street name, dog and your pet's name. The pairing makes the general-versus-specific idea concrete in a way definitions never do.
Watch for: A word isn't proper just because it starts a sentence with a capital. The capital has to belong to the word itself. Days, months, and holidays are proper nouns. School subjects like math are not.
Common questions about common and proper nouns
- How do I explain common vs proper nouns to a 2nd grader?
- Try "any" versus "the one." A common noun is any city, any girl, any dog. A proper noun is the one you mean: Chicago, Maya, Rex. If you could point at lots of them, it's common. If it's a name, it's proper and gets a capital.
- Why is sorting better than circling for this skill?
- Because the skill is telling two groups apart, not finding words in a sentence. A sort forces a decision on every word. Our generator pulls a fresh word bank each time, so a second round is never the same list.
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Aligned to Common Core L.2.2.a. Reviewed by the One More Sheet curriculum team. Content version 68, updated July 2026.