Nominalisation Grammar Quiz
Test your understanding of nominalisation — the process of converting verbs and adjectives into noun forms. Nominalisation is a key feature of academic English style at B2 and C1 level and is essential for IELTS Academic and Cambridge Advanced writing.
Start the Quiz →What This Quiz Tests
Nominalisation is the process of turning verbs or adjectives into nouns. It is one of the defining features of academic and formal written English. This quiz tests recognition and production of nominalisations.
- Verb to noun: decide → decision, analyse → analysis, investigate → investigation, develop → development.
- Adjective to noun: significant → significance, complex → complexity, accurate → accuracy.
- Common nominalising suffixes: -tion, -sion, -ment, -ance, -ence, -ity, -ness.
- Rewriting verb-heavy sentences using nominalisations for a more formal style.
- Identifying correct nominalisations in academic reading contexts.
Choose Your Format
Practise the same topic in four different exercise formats:
Multiple Choice Quiz
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Gameshow Quiz
Timed rounds, score streaks, competitive fun
True or False
Quick binary decisions on key facts
Matching Pairs
Match terms to their definitions
Sample Questions
1. Convert to a nominalisation: “The government decided to raise taxes.” → “The government’s ___ to raise taxes…”
Answer: decision
2. What is the noun form of the adjective ‘significant’?
Answer: significance
3. Which suffix turns the verb ‘reduce’ into a noun? reduce → ___
Answer: reduction
CEFR Level Breakdown
| Level | What to expect |
|---|---|
| B2 | Common nominalisations in academic and professional contexts |
| C1 | Stylistic rewriting, complex abstract nouns, academic collocations |
| C2 | Subtle differences between nominalised and clausal forms in formal prose |
Related Pages
- Discourse Markers Quiz — academic cohesion and style
- Complex Sentences Quiz — sentence structure in academic writing
- IELTS Vocabulary Quiz — academic vocabulary for exam preparation
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Frequently Asked Questions
Nominalisation is the process of forming a noun from a verb, adjective, or other word class. For example, 'decide' (verb) becomes 'decision' (noun), and 'complex' (adjective) becomes 'complexity' (noun). It is a key feature of academic and formal written English because it allows writers to express processes and states as concepts, making writing more concise and impersonal.
Academic writing favours a formal, impersonal tone. Nominalisation shifts the emphasis from actions (verbs) to concepts and processes (nouns). Compare 'We analysed the data' (informal) with 'The analysis of the data' (formal). Nominalisations also allow writers to introduce a concept as the subject of a sentence, creating more logical and cohesive text.
The most common suffixes include: -tion/-sion (decision, discussion), -ment (development, assessment), -ance/-ence (importance, evidence), -ity (ability, complexity), -ness (awareness, effectiveness), -al (arrival, refusal), -age (shortage, usage), and -ure (failure, procedure). Recognising these suffixes helps you identify and form nominalisations quickly.
A gerund is the -ing form of a verb used as a noun: 'Swimming is good exercise.' Nominalisations use specific noun suffixes: 'the investigation', 'the analysis'. Gerunds retain a more verbal quality and are often used to describe activities, while nominalisations present processes as abstract concepts. Both are common in academic English, but nominalisations are more typical of formal written style.
Informal: 'Researchers discovered that the drug was effective.' Nominalised: 'The discovery of the drug's effectiveness led to widespread use.' Another example — informal: 'The government decided to reduce spending.' Nominalised: 'The government's decision to reduce spending resulted in budget cuts.' The nominalised versions sound more formal and allow the writer to reference the action as a noun subject.
Nominalisation often shifts the action from the verb to a noun, which can change the grammatical subject and the overall emphasis of a sentence. It typically results in longer, denser noun phrases but shorter verb phrases. For example, 'The committee approved the proposal' becomes 'The committee's approval of the proposal'. This can make academic texts feel dense, which is why students need to balance nominalisation with clear, readable prose.
Yes. In IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 and Task 2, using nominalisations correctly is associated with a higher Lexical Resource band score. Examiners reward candidates who use a range of vocabulary including abstract nouns. For example, using 'an increase in unemployment' rather than 'more people became unemployed' demonstrates a wider vocabulary range.
Common errors include: using the wrong suffix (saying 'decidement' instead of 'decision'), confusing adjective and noun forms (writing 'the important of' instead of 'the importance of'), omitting the article before a nominalised noun phrase when referring to a specific entity, and overusing nominalisations to the point where sentences become unreadable.
Effective ways to improve include: studying the Academic Word List (AWL), which contains many common nominalisations; reading academic journal articles and noting how processes are expressed as nouns; practising rewriting informal sentences in a formal nominalised style; and taking quizzes like this one. Flash cards with verb-noun pairs (analyse/analysis, apply/application) are also very effective.
'The growth of' is a nominalisation used to refer to the process of growing as an abstract concept or completed event: 'The growth of the digital economy has been rapid.' 'Growing' (gerund) emphasises the ongoing action: 'The growing demand for renewable energy is driving investment.' Both are grammatically correct, but 'the growth of' is more typical of formal written English.