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

Visitor numbers fell sharply. This decline forced the museum to close.

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)

Your turn

Answer out loud — full sentences

Rephrase in a formal, nominal style.

"Prices rose quickly." → The rapid…

Describe a change in your school or town using nouns: the introduction of… the improvement in…

"People refused to leave." → Their refusal…

Summarise a news story in two nominal sentences.

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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