Editing Proper noun (section)

=== Brand names ===

In most alphabetic languages, proprietary terms that are nouns or noun phrases are capitalized whether or not they count as proper names.<ref>''New Hart's Rules: The Oxford Style Guide'' (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. 2014. pp.&nbsp;105–106. ISBN 9780199570027.</ref> Not all brand names are proper names, and not all proper names are brand names.

* ''[[Microsoft]]'' is a proper name, referring to a specific company. But if ''Microsoft'' is given a non-standard secondary application, in the role of a common noun, these usages are accepted: "The ''Microsofts'' of this world"; "That's not the ''Microsoft'' I know!"; "The company aspired to be another ''Microsoft''."
* ''[[Chevrolet]]'' is similarly a proper name referring to a specific company. But unlike ''Microsoft'', it is also used in the role of a common noun to refer to products of the named company: "He drove a ''Chevrolet''" (a particular vehicle); "The ''Chevrolets'' of the 1960s" (classes of vehicles). In these uses, ''Chevrolet'' does not function as a proper name.{{sfn|Huddleston| Pullum |2002| pp=521–522}}
* ''[[Chevrolet Corvette|Corvette]]'' (referring to a car produced by the company Chevrolet) is not a proper name:{{efn|The authors use ''Cortina'' (manufactured by the company Ford) as an example of a "tradename but not a proper name".{{sfn|Huddleston| Pullum |2002| pp=521–522, 1758}}  }} it can be pluralized (French and English ''Corvettes''); and it can take a definite article or other [[Determiner (linguistics)|determiner]] or modifier: "the ''Corvette''", "la ''Corvette''"; "my ''Corvette''", "ma ''Corvette''"; "another new ''Corvette''", "une autre nouvelle ''Corvette''". Similarly, ''Chevrolet Corvette'' is not a proper name: "We owned three ''Chevrolet Corvettes''."  It contrasts with the uncapitalized ''[[corvette]]'', a kind of warship.