We’ve seen how changing nouns and adjectives into verbs can give us unexpected, modern and punchy writing, so what happens when we do the opposite and make nouns out of verbs and adjectives? Unfortunately, we often get the opposite of unexpected, modern and punchy writing, ending up with writing that is overwrought, convoluted and strained.
Turning non-nouns into nouns, or nominalization, is something you often see in business, government and academic writings. Anytime you think of writing that is overly wordy, circuitous and hopelessly bureaucratic, nominalization is usually to blame, with generous help from passive sentence formation.
What is Nominalization?
Nominalization is the creation of nouns from verbs, adjectives or adverbs, often by the use of suffixes like -ion, -ment, -ance, -ness and -ity. For example, imagine becomes imagination, argue becomes argument, maintain becomes maintenance, sad becomes sadness and serene becomes serenity.
For example, here are nouns created from verbs and suffixes, such as -tion, -sion, -ment, -ance, etc.:
His enjoyment of the sci-fi, mixed martial arts puppet show was surprising, and a bit alarming.
Last night’s attendance of my lecture on the importance of proper toenail hygiene was dismal.
In lieu of any other reference, I find myself returning over and over to the expertise of my grandmother for keeping chupacabras out of my chicken coop.
In conclusion, the government should fully support my decision to dig into the sewers to find the elusive mole men living inside.
Adjectives can be nominalized by the addition of –ness, -y, -ity, -ance and-ence:
The difficulty of the professor’s tests was outweighed by their rarity.
The lawn’s greenness hid the coal fire burning not far below the surface.
Her claims of innocence regarding the recent jewelry store robberies was undermined by the huge bag of cuff links found in her car.
In some instances, there is no change between the verb or adjective and noun:
Please answer my question regarding why there is a llama in the bathroom. And, no, I do not want to wait to hear your answer until after you are done bathing your new pet llama.
Use a spoon when eating pudding. The use of a knife for the task will only lead to tears and frustration.
I’m glad you changed clothes before our date, but I fear that your change into your clown costume will be a bad idea if we still plan on going to the rodeo.
He decided to run to the store and was disappointed to find out there was a run on the cheese loaf he liked so much. The store was completely sold out.
Nominalization can also take the form of gerunds and adding the suffix -ing to the end of the verb. For example:
Baking is her favorite hobby.
My singing has often been described as monotone yet surprisingly piercing.
My cat seems to do little else beyond sleeping, eating and barfing.
Alternately, verbs can use their infinitive form to create a noun:
To walk on the moon was her dream, but she hated flying.
To err is human, to perambulate divine.
Sometimes the nominalization takes the form of a verb within a clause:
Cooking my famous wildebeest-noodle casserole is my favorite way to pass the time.
That I cook an entire wildebeest in a casserole is still a point of amazement and concern for all my friends and family.
Other examples of nominalization include turning a verb into a noun to indicate profession, an agent of an action or the recipient of an action by adding -er, -or, -r -ee. For example:
teach→teacher
act→actor
write→writer
employ→employee
What is So Wrong With Using Nominalizations?
While some nominalizations are helpful, if not indispensable (I don’t think may of use could go long without using a gerund or using such helpful nouns like government or invitation), nominalization can lead to unnecessarily wordy and unclear sentences. Here are few examples:
The group reached an agreement to have a meeting regarding the problem and perform an investigation to find a solution.
vs.
The group agreed to meet about the problem and find a solution.
and
A review was conducted of the findings.
vs.
They reviewed the findings.
and
It is our hope that upon your return, you will provide an answer for our questions.
vs.
We hope when you return that you answer our questions.
In the first example, you can see strong verbs like agreed, meet and find become reached an agreement, have a meeting and perform an investigation. In the second example, we reviewed becomes a review was conducted, completely removing the active agent of the sentence.
One of the drawbacks of nominalization is that sentences can become wordier, the action can become muddied and the subject sometimes disappears completely. A simple subject-verb-object sentence like We decided to eat becomes much more difficult to understand and visualize than the nominalized We made a decision to eat or A decision was made to eat.
When writing, you need to ask yourself, “What is the crucial action of this sentence?” Are the main actions reaching or agreeing, performing or finding, making or deciding, conducting or reviewing, is or hope, submit or respond, provide or answer? Changing the main action of the sentence from a verb to a noun changes the sentence from one of action, to one that merely describes that action exists. Using the verb, rather than the nominalized verb, results in a much more powerful, active sentence that is usually easier to read and understand.
Nominalized verbs often need helper verbs like be verbs (i.e., am, is are, was, were, be, being, been) or weaker verbs like provide, make, have, conduct, carry out, perform etc., to create a sentence, since the action of the stronger verbs disappear when they are transformed into nouns. For example:
- They are in agreement…/They agree…
- The experiment was performed…/They experimented…
- This is an indication of…/This indicates…
- He made his apologies for…/He apologized for…
- She made a decision to…/She decided to…
- The paper provided an analysis of…/The paper analyzed…
The great bastions of nominalization are technical writing and scientific writing. For technical and science writers, the important part of what they want to express isn’t who did the experimenting, but the results of the experiment or that the experiment took place. Writers can also fall into the trap of thinking nominalization and passive voice give their writing objectiveness and impartiality; if no one is doing the experimenting or analyzing, then they can’t possibly be biased, right?
The problems with nominalization in technical writing are the problems with nominalization in all other writing—it’s wordier, harder to read and understand, and lacks the action needed to catch and keep the reader’s attention. For example:
There is a need for a study of changes in gnome activity to provide an understanding of climate change’s effects on native gnome populations.
vs.
We need to study changes in gnome activity to understand climate change’s effects on native gnome populations.
Examples of Verb and Adjective Nominalization
Verb→Nominalization
- discover→discovery
- resist→resistance
- react→reaction
- fail→failure
- decide→decision
- agree→agreement
- investigate→investigation
- obstruct→obstruction
- respond→response
- run→running
Adjective→Nominalization
- elegant→elegance
- difficult→difficulty
- intense→intensity
- different→difference
Some nominalizations are the same regardless of word type:
- hope→hope
- change→change
- answer→answer
- love→love
- result→result
- report→report
- murder→murder
When are Nominalizations Useful?
There are many times when a nominalized verb or adjective is the best option for the sentence. Nominalization can help a sentence flow easier, link sentences together and make sentences more compact and fresh, despite their reputation for turgidity in the wrong hands.
For example:
I disagree with her conclusion and her advice.
is more compact and flows better than:
I disagree with what she concluded and what she advised.
Similarly, when referring back to a previous sentence, a nominalization can help sentences flow together.
For example:
The scientists analyzed the number of swamp monster attacks and concluded that there was a direct correlation between the attacks and noise levels in the local swamp. Their analysis did not, however, recommend cancelling the local Guns, Fireworks and Drums Festival to be held later that month at Camp Quagmire.
Some nominalizations may seem grating or overly casual to some, but allow writers more nuanced meaning and brevity. We’ve all heard someone refer to a great read, an epic fail, a complete disconnect and a plot’s reveal. Whether you like the terms or not, referring to a lecture’s take-away is a lot less wordy than “the message we should take away from the lecture.” True, these examples are more casual than their non-nominalized versions, but that’s the point.
Some ideas and actions are almost impossible to write or talk about without some nominalization. Verbs like love, death and hope are used so often as nouns that we often forget they are actually verbs. I love you, I almost died from embarrassment and Let’s hope for the best sound as natural to our ears as All you need is love, Death be not proud and My hope is that I win the butter sculpture contest.
Nominalizations can be extremely useful and can fill such a useful niche that removing them would leave our writing more cluttered as we struggle to find words to express what we mean. Where would we be without such useful words as discovery, invention, beginning, explanation, donation, teacher, actor, writer, employee, invitation, population, amendment, government, failure, confusion, and interview (as noun)? If we include adjective nominalizations, then we would have to omit gratefulness, happiness, sadness, difficulty, honesty, ability, rarity, importance, ignorance, independence, silence and responsibility. Removing these nouns just because they started as verbs or adjectives would leave our language poorer indeed.
Nominalization (Creating Nouns). (n.d.) The Farlex Grammar Book. (2016). Retrieved January 22, 2020 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Nominalization-Creating-Nouns.htm
Nordquist, Richard. “What Is Nominalization in English Grammar?” ThoughtCo, May. 24, 2019, thoughtco.com/nominalization-in-grammar-1691430.
“Clarity.” Style: toward Clarity and Grace, by Joseph M. Williams and Gregory G. Colomb, University of Chicago Press, 1995, pp. 29–36.
Grammaphile 