Emphasis & advanced · CEFR C2 · Mastery
Nominalisation — English emphasis and inversion
Formal writing turns actions into nouns, which makes a sentence denser and less personal. Useful, and easy to overdo into unreadability.
The shape
decide → the decision · fail → the failure
Write in the register reports and papers are written in.
In Hindi
औपचारिक लेखन कामों को संज्ञा बना देता है, जिससे वाक्य घना और कम व्यक्तिगत हो जाता है।
CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.
The mistake to fix first
The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.
| Commonly said | Correct English |
|---|---|
We investigated it and we concluded that it failed. | The investigation concluded that the project had failed. Both are correct — the second is the register a formal report is written in. |
Easy to confuse with
Close enough to be mixed up with this one. Knowing the difference is most of knowing either.
Questions people ask
- What is the nominalisation used for?
- Formal writing turns actions into nouns, which makes a sentence denser and less personal. Useful, and easy to overdo into unreadability. In practice: write in the register reports and papers are written in.
- How do you form the nominalisation?
- decide → the decision · fail → the failure.
- What is the most common mistake with the nominalisation?
- Saying “We investigated it and we concluded that it failed.” instead of “The investigation concluded that the project had failed.”. Both are correct — the second is the register a formal report is written in.
Where nominalisation fits
Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.
Nominalisation is a CEFR C2 structure — the mastery band — and it belongs to emphasis & advanced. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.
Reading it is not the same as saying it.
CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.
Practise the nominalisation →