Nominalisation
Study material for Nominalisation
Why This Matters
Nominalisation is a crucial academic skill that transforms verbs, adjectives, and adverbs into nouns, making writing more formal, concise, and objective. This process is essential for expressing complex ideas efficiently and is characterized by the use of specific suffixes. Mastering nominalisation will significantly improve your B2 English writing, allowing you to convey information with greater academic precision and sophistication.
Key Words to Know
Introduction
Nominalisation is a powerful linguistic tool in English that involves converting verbs, adjectives, or adverbs into nouns. This process is crucial for creating more formal, concise, and academic writing, allowing for the expression of complex ideas in a more abstract and structured way. Mastering nominalisation significantly enhances your ability to write at a B2 level and beyond.
Key Concepts
Nominalisation primarily serves to make writing more objective and less personal. Instead of saying 'The company decided to expand,' you can say 'The company's decision for expansion.' This shifts the focus from the action (decided, expand) to the concept (decision, expansion). It often involves adding suffixes like -tion, -sion, -ment, -ance, -ence, -al, -ing, or sometimes changing the word form entirely. It can also help to condense information, making sentences more efficient and impactful, which is vital for academic discourse.
Examples
- Verb to Noun: 'They discuss the problem' becomes 'The discussion of the problem'.
- Adjective to Noun: 'The results were accurate' becomes 'The accuracy of the results'.
- Verb to Noun: 'We analyse the data' becomes 'The analysis of the data'.
- Adjective to Noun: 'The situation was difficult' becomes 'The difficulty of the situation'.
Practice Tips
When reading academic texts, actively identify instances of nominalisation and try to rephrase the sentences using verbs...
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Exam Tips
- 1.Look for opportunities to nominalise in essay writing to achieve a higher register.
- 2.Be aware of common nominalisation suffixes (-tion, -sion, -ment, -ance, -ence, -al).
- 3.Practice transforming sentences from 'active' to 'nominalised' forms for clarity and formality.