Nominalisation
Nominalisation turns a verb or adjective into a noun (decide → decision, important → importance) to write in a formal, objective, academic style that foregrounds the result or idea rather than who did it and when.
Formula
Examples
Usage
- •Academic essays and research papers — states findings as facts, not actions someone performed
- •Formal reports and business writing — sounds objective and impersonal
- •Topic sentences that pack a whole clause into one dense noun phrase for the sentence to comment on
- •News and journalistic headlines/leads — compresses events into short abstract nouns
- •IELTS/academic band-boosting register — signals formal, written English over spoken English
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Try 5 cards free — no signup →Why do academic writers use nominalisation?
Turning an action into a noun lets it function as a subject, be modified by adjectives, and sit inside longer noun phrases — instead of "they analysed the data," formal writing prefers "the analysis of the data." This is what makes academic prose feel dense and impersonal rather than narrative: agency and time recede, and the sentence can foreground the result instead of who did what and when.
Used sparingly, it signals formal, objective writing. Overused, it produces the stiff, hard-to-follow "nominal style" that style guides — and IELTS/TOEFL examiners — actually penalise.
How do you form a nominalisation?
Verbs commonly take -ion, -ment, -ance, or -ing (decide → decision, discuss → discussion, fail → failure is irregular). Adjectives commonly take -ity, -ness, or -cy (important → importance).
Many nominal forms are irregular and must be learned as vocabulary rather than derived by a fixed rule: decide → decision (not "decidement"), prove → proof, succeed → success, analyse → analysis (not "analyzation"), discover → discovery (not "discoverment").
Does nominalisation hide who did the action?
It can, if the agent is dropped entirely: "There was an improvement" doesn't say who improved what. Recover the missing information by pairing the nominalised noun with "of + noun phrase": "the reduction of emissions" tells you what was reduced, even without naming who reduced it.
Comparison Table
| Form | Verb / adjective | Nominalised noun | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| decide | decide (v.) | decision (n.) | The committee reached a decision after lengthy discussion. |
| analyse | analyse (v.) | analysis (n.) | The analysis of the data took three weeks. |
| important | important (adj.) | importance (n.) | Researchers emphasised the importance of early intervention. |
| grow | grow (v.) | growth (n.) | The rapid growth of the industry surprised investors. |
| fail | fail (v.) | failure (n.) | Their failure to comply resulted in a fine. |
Save this comparison chart
More Examples
Analysts predicted a decline in consumer spending.
decline ← decline (v.) — economic report
The committee reached a decision after lengthy discussion.
decision ← decide; discussion ← discuss — formal minutes
Researchers emphasised the importance of early intervention.
importance ← important; intervention ← intervene — academic abstract
The rapid growth of the industry surprised investors.
growth ← grow — business journalism
Their failure to comply resulted in a fine.
failure ← fail — legal/formal register
The proposal received strong criticism from environmentalists.
proposal ← propose; criticism ← criticise — public debate
Common Mistakes
- ✗Nominalising every verb in a sentence, producing a dense noun-pile that's hard to parse ('The implementation of the reduction of the utilisation of...').
- ✗Dropping the agent entirely so it's unclear who did the action ('There was an improvement' — improved by whom?).
- ✗Using the wrong or non-existent suffix ('analyzation' instead of 'analysis'; 'discoverment' instead of 'discovery') — nominal forms are often irregular and must be learned, not derived by rule.
- ✗Treating an uncountable nominalisation as countable ('informations', 'an equipments') or vice versa.
Tips
- ✓Keep nominalisation for formal/academic writing — reverting to verbs ('they decided' not 'a decision was made') keeps speech and informal writing natural.
- ✓Pair the nominalised noun with 'of + noun phrase' to restore the missing information ('the reduction of emissions' recovers what was reduced).
- ✓Learn irregular noun forms as vocabulary items (decide→decision, prove→proof, succeed→success) rather than assuming a fixed suffix rule.
Advanced Notes
Nominalisation is the hallmark of academic and bureaucratic English: instead of 'they analysed the data', formal writing prefers 'the analysis of the data' — the action becomes a thing, which lets it function as a subject, be modified by adjectives, and sit inside longer noun phrases. This is what makes academic prose feel dense and impersonal rather than narrative: agency and time recede, and the sentence can foreground the result instead of who did what and when. Native academic writers use it deliberately but sparingly — overusing it produces the stiff, hard-to-follow 'nominal style' that style guides (and IELTS/TOEFL examiners) actually penalise, so strong writers alternate nominalised and verbal sentences rather than nominalising everything.
FAQ
Is 'analyzation' a word?
No — the correct nominalised form of "analyse" is "analysis." Nominal forms are often irregular (decide → decision, discover → discovery, prove → proof) and need to be learned individually rather than assumed from a suffix rule.
Why does nominalisation sometimes make writing hard to read?
Stacking too many nominalisations in one sentence produces a dense noun-pile that's difficult to parse, like "the implementation of the reduction of the utilisation of…" Strong writers alternate nominalised and verbal sentences rather than nominalising everything.
Does nominalisation hide who did something?
It can, when the agent is dropped entirely — "There was an improvement" doesn't say who improved what. Recover the missing information with "of + noun phrase" ("an improvement in efficiency") or by naming the agent directly.
Is 'informations' correct?
No — "information" is uncountable and never takes a plural -s. Some nominalisations are countable (a decision, several decisions) and some are uncountable (information, advice); which one a given noun is has to be learned rather than assumed.
What's the difference between a nominalisation and a relative clause?
A nominalisation compresses an entire action into a single noun ("the analysis of the data"). A relative clause keeps the verb but attaches it to a noun with a pronoun ("the data that was analysed"). Nominalisation is more compressed and more common in formal or academic writing; relative clauses read more naturally in narrative or spoken English.
Practice
- 1.The committee reached a after lengthy discussion.
- 2.Researchers emphasised the of early intervention.
- 3.The rapid of the industry surprised investors.
- 4.Their to comply resulted in a fine.
- 5.The of the data took three weeks.
Compare With
Other C1 Topics
Mixed Conditionals
Expresses how a past event affects the present (or vice versa)
Inversion with Negative Adverbials
Expresses strong emphasis by inverting verb and subject after negative openers
Advanced Relative Clauses
Forms precise noun phrases by defining, extending, or reducing relative clauses
Wish and If Only
Expresses regrets about the past or desires contrary to present reality
Conditional Perfect (Would Have)
Expresses imagined or unrealised outcomes in the past
Discourse Markers
Used for organising and signalling structure or stance in formal speech or writing
Substitution and Ellipsis
Used for avoiding repetition using short substitute forms or deliberate omission
Inversion in Conditionals
Formal if-less conditionals formed by inverting had, were, or should.
Hedging and Cautious Language
Softening claims with modals, tentative verbs, and qualifying phrases in formal/academic writing.
Advanced Future Forms
Formal and semi-modal ways to talk about the future: be to, be about to, be due to, be on the verge of, be bound to.
Advanced Comparison
Compare with nuance: proportional change, ongoing trends, and emphasized or minimized differences.