Question

Is TV a common noun or a proper noun? If it is common, why is it capitalized?

Answer 1

Hint: Noun is a naming word. It is a word that refers to any name, place, thing, feeling, animal or abstract idea. There are 7 main types of nouns are Common nouns, Proper nouns, Concrete nouns, Abstract nouns, Collective nouns, Count and mass nouns. In the above question, we have to tell the noun of the word TV and give a reason to support our answer.

Complete answer:
Let us first understand what is a common noun and what is a proper noun.
Common Noun - As the name suggests it is a common name for any noun. It is a general name for one category of nouns and almost everything around is a common noun. For e.g. girl, boy, chair, road etc. Unlike proper nouns, the initial letter of common nouns is not capitalised. All the Countable, uncountable, collective, concrete and abstract nouns are common nouns.
Proper Nouns - These nouns are specific names for any person, place, animal or thing. The first alphabet of such words is always written in Capital even if they come in the middle or at the end of the sentence. Sometimes these nouns take the determiner ‘the’. ‘The’ is usually used in the case of countries that have States/Kingdom/Republic in their name, name of river/seas/oceans, plural of people’s name/places’ name etc. However, not every proper noun will make use of the determiner ‘ the’.

TV is a common noun. It is not a proper noun because television can be of any company or any owner for e.g. Samsung’s TV or Rahul’s TV.

TV is capitalized because it is given in its abbreviated or acronym form. Its full form is television. Whenever we used initials of any noun to make its abbreviated form then we write them in the capital.

Note: Abbreviations are different from acronyms. While abbreviations are shortened forms of words or phrases they can take more than just initial letters of the word for e.g. abbreviated form of continued is cont. However, acronyms usually take only the initial letters for e.g. acronym for television is TV.