Nominalizations are nouns that are created from adjectives (words that describe nouns) or verbs (action words). For example, “interference” is a nominalization of “interfere,” “decision” is a nominalization of “decide,” and “argument” is a nominalization of “argue.”
First, it is important to understand what these words mean when you see them. Second, if you are aware of what nominalizations are, you may use them to make your writing easier to understand.
Copyright ©1995-2019 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University.
Some examples:
My kids got sick (action) →The illness of my children (noun)
Because the President failed to remove the troops, many deaths (action) → The failure to remove the troops resulted in many deaths (noun)
More complex (Adjectival phrase) → Complexity (noun)
Extra examples:
Invasion can destabilize ecosystems (action) → Ecosystem destabilization can be the consequence of invasion (noun)
We demonstrated the effect of pH (action) → A demonstration of the effect of pH was performed (noun)
