Nominalization: Turning Verbs & Adjectives into Nouns
Nominalization: Turning Verbs & Adjectives into Nouns
Formal and written French prefers compressing a clause into a noun phrase (la décision du gouvernement de...) rather than stringing full clauses together — a habit English academic and journalistic writing shares, and one where cognate suffixes give English speakers a genuine head start.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Suffix patterns — and a real cognate advantage
décider → la décision; développer → le développement; laver → le lavage; naître → la naissance; possible → la possibilité
to decide → the decision; to develop → the development; to wash → the washing; to be born → the birth; possible → the possibility
French has several noun-forming suffixes, each attaching to a different set of verbs or adjectives: -tion (décider → décision, informer → information), -ment (développer → développement, payer → paiement), -age (laver → lavage, nettoyer → nettoyage — often physical or repeated actions), -ance/-ence (naître → naissance, résister → résistance), and -ité (attached to adjectives: possible → possibilité, réel → réalité). Because English borrowed so much of its formal vocabulary from French and Latin, three of these suffixes are near-identical cognates you already half-know: -tion/-tion (décision/decision, information/information), -ité/-ity (possibilité/possibility, réalité/reality), and -ance/-ance (résistance/resistance, naissance is the exception, meaning 'birth' not a cognate). Watch spelling (développement, two p's worth of French quirks, not 'developpement') and note -age doesn't map as cleanly — le lavage is 'the washing', not 'washage'.
Why formal French reaches for nominalization
Le gouvernement a décidé de... (verbal, ordinary) → La décision du gouvernement de... (nominal, more formal/written)
The government decided to... / The government's decision to...
As in English journalistic and academic writing, French administrative and formal registers often compress a clause into a noun phrase rather than a full verb clause — la décision du gouvernement instead of le gouvernement a décidé, mirroring the same shift English makes from 'the government decided to raise taxes' to 'the government's decision to raise taxes'. This isn't a new habit to learn from scratch, just one to recognize in French: spotting the noun (une décision) as coming from a verb you already know (décider) is often the fastest way to unlock an unfamiliar-looking formal sentence.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| la décision | lah day-see-ZYOHN | the decision |
| le développement | luh day-vlop-MAHN | the development |
| l'information | lan-for-mah-SYOHN | the information |
| le paiement | luh peh-MAHN | the payment |
| le lavage | luh lah-VAHZH | the washing |
| le nettoyage | luh net-wah-YAHZH | the cleaning |
| la naissance | lah neh-SAHNS | the birth |
| la résistance | lah ray-zee-STAHNS | the resistance |
| la possibilité | lah po-see-bee-lee-TAY | the possibility |
| la réalité | lah ray-ah-lee-TAY | the reality |