What is Nominalisation in Grammar? Meaning, Examples 

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What is Nominalisation in Grammar

Normalisation is also written as Nomonatlization according to American English. This is a useful tool in English Grammar, especially if you are writing academic essays, official reports, or professional emails. It helps you focus on ideas and actions rather than who is doing them. In this complete article, we will explain to you what nominalisation is in Grammar and how to spot it. It is a simple way to upgrade your grammar skills and help you to write more powerfully. 

What is Nominalisation in Grammar?

Nominalisation in Grammar is the process of turning a verb, adjective or another part of speech into a noun or noun phrase. This process is also known as nouning. 

Example for Verb to Noun Nominalisation: 

Verb Nominalise form
Explain Explanation 
AnalyseAnalysis 
GrowGrowth
FailFailure

Examples for Adjective to Noun Nominalisation 

AdjectiveNominalise form
Happy Happiness
StrongStrenth 
Responsible Responsibility 

Also Read: 9 Basic Rules in Grammar to Improve Your English [A Guide]

Why Use Nominalisation In Grammar?

Here are a few reasons why writers use nominalisation in Grammar:

  • Academic and Formal Writing: Nominalisation is essential for academic writing because it will prevent you from repeating the same verb or other words. This makes your writing less personal, as the focus will be on the action rather than who performs it. As a result, your writing will be more original, diverse and interesting. 
  • Connecting ideas: It helps to connect ideas and avoid repetition by summarising actions or qualities as concepts. 
  • Emphasis: By transforming action or qualities into nouns, writers can emphasise phenomena, results, or concepts rather than agents or actions.
  • Higher Abstraction: It enables writers to discuss action, event, or qualities as general concepts rather than specific occurrences. 

How Nominalisation Works in Grammar 

Nominalisation involves turning a verb or an adjective into a noun or a noun phrase. Here we will help you understand step by step how no monation works in grammar:

Nominalisation of Verb

Nominalisation of verbs is the most common and easiest way to change a verb (an action) into a noun or noun phrase (a naming word). This is done by adding suffixes such as  -ion, -ment, -al, -ance, -ing, and others to the base of the verb: 

Verb Nouns 
Adapt Adaption 
AchieveAchievement 
Civilse Civilisation 
DevelopDevelopment 
Discover Discovery 
Duplicate Duplication
Reproduce Reproduction 
PerformPerformance 

Nominalisation of Adjectives

Nominationalization of an adjective is a way of converting adjectives (words that describe qualities or states) into nouns ( words that describe named things, concepts, or qualities). This is commonly done by adding specific suffixes to the adjective or using the adjective with the definite article to refer to a group or concept.

Adjective Noun
Angry Anger
DifficultDifficulty
Intense Intensity 
AbsentAbsence 
Wise Wisdom
Excited Excitement 
InjuredInjury 
SimilarSimilarity 
Available Availability 

Also Read: Evolution of English Grammar Rules: From Old to Modern

Nominalisation in Academic Writing

Nominalisation is a powerful tool in academic writing for increasing formality, conciseness and cohesion. It is widely used in research papers, articles, and IELTS essays to present ideas objectively and efficiently. However, clarity should always be a priority, so nominalisation should be used thoughtfully and in a balanced way with active constructions.

Nominalisation in IELTS Writing

For the IELTS writing section, using nominalisation can help you to raise your writing to a higher band by demonstrating control of academic style and complex sentence structures.

Nominalisation in  Research Papers and Articles

Normalisation is used to present findings, discuss concepts, and summarise literature in a formal, concise manner. For example, ‘The evaluation of current student services will identify areas for improvement’ is preferred over ‘The university is evaluating student services to identify areas for improvement. 

Sentences of Nominalisation in Grammar

Here are some examples of sentences of nominalisation in academic contexts: 

Without Nominalisation(more informal/active)With Nominalisation (more formal/academic)
The police investigated the case The police investigation uncovers new evidence.
The course was difficult.The course’s difficulty resulted in poor performance.
Germany invaded Poland in 1939.Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 was significant. 
We walked for charity The charity walk raised money for the foundation. 

Common Suffixes for Nominalisation

Here are some common Nominalisation suffixes: 

  • -tion: evaluation, action, decision.
  • -ment: treatment, development, achievement.
  • -ness: darkness, happiness, carelessness.
  • -ce:  absence, innocence
  • -ity: similarity, complexity, clarity.
  • -ance: acceptance, assistance, resemblance.
  • -al: refusal, approval
  • -dom: freedom, wisdom
  • -cy: efficiency,  vacancy
  • -ing: running, writing 

Also Read: 85+ English Grammar Shortcuts and Rules for CDS AFCAT

FAQs 

Q1: How to identify nominalisation?

If you have any doubts, begin by reviewing the first seven or eight words of your sentence for abstract nouns.  Look for the telltale suffixes -tion, -ment, and -ence, as stated above.  If the moving portion of the sentence is a noun rather than a verb, you’ve identified your nominalisation.

Q2: Why use nominalisation?

Nominalisation is an important aspect of academic writing.  It provides variety, objectivity, and an impersonal tone to texts.  Nominalisation also improves the readability and conciseness of writing by allowing writers to pack a lot more information into phrases.

Q3: What is an active voice in English?

Active voice is a method of writing sentences in which the subject performs the action rather than an object acting on the subject.  In other words, the subject actively performs the verb’s action, which is why the sentence is termed active voice.

Q4: What is the opposite of nominalisation?

The conversion of verbs into nouns is known as ‘nominalisation’ (on the other hand, turning nouns into verbs is called ‘verbing’ or ‘denominalisation’).

Q5: What are a, an, and the called?

A, An, and The are all referred to as articles.  They are primarily demonstrative adjectives.  A and An are indefinite articles, while The is a definite article.

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