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Ch 7

Nominalisation

Verbs → nouns · academic style

Nominalisation — academic style

Nominalisation turns verbs and adjectives into nouns. It's a defining feature of academic, formal, and scientific writing — making texts more concise and impersonal.

Verb → noun
decide → decision, develop → development, refuse → refusal
Adjective → noun
difficult → difficulty, important → importance, accurate → accuracy
Reduces clauses
When prices increase → The increase in prices...

Common nominalisation patterns

-tion / -sion
educate → education · decide → decision · expand → expansion
-ment
develop → development · improve → improvement · achieve → achievement
-ance / -ence
accept → acceptance · prefer → preference · differ → difference
-al
refuse → refusal · arrive → arrival · approve → approval
-ity / -ness
able → ability · happy → happiness · responsible → responsibility
-ing as noun
teach → teaching · learn → learning · build → building

Verbal style vs nominal style

Verbal (informal)
We decided to expand quickly.
She refused, which annoyed me.
Prices increased rapidly.
Nominal (formal)
Our decision was rapid expansion.
Her refusal caused annoyance.
The rapid increase in prices...

Using nominalisation for cohesion

Referring back
The company expanded rapidly. This expansion led to many problems.
Summary noun
She left without saying goodbye. This refusal to communicate annoyed us all.
Linking ideas
Sales fell sharply. This decline forced layoffs.
Nominalisation packs information into noun phrases — useful for academic writing but can become dense and impersonal if overused.

Common mistakes

The economy growed quickly.
→
The economy experienced rapid growth.
nominalised version more formal
She is interest in art.
→
She has an interest in art.
interest is noun here (interested is adjective)

Recap

Patterns
-tion · -ment · -ance · -al · -ity · -ness · -ing
decide → decision
Style
academic / formal / impersonal writing
reduces clauses
Cohesion
summary nouns referring back
This decision / this increase
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