Nominalisation in Formal Writing

• Nominalisation means turning verbs and adjectives into nouns. This makes business writing sound more professional, objective, and formal.
• Verb / Adjective
• Suffix / Change
• Nominalised Noun
• decide
• -ision
• the decision
• available
• -ility
• the availability
• expand
• -sion
• the expansion
• propose
• -al
• the proposal
• Remember
• Use nominalised nouns to sound more formal in strategy documents.
• Match the new noun with a suitable verb, such as make, provide, or reach.
• Check spelling changes when adding suffixes like -ity or -ation.
• Examples
• We decided to enter Chicago. → We made the decision to enter Chicago.
• Resources are available in Boston. → The availability of resources in Boston is high.
• Common mistakes
• We discussed about our expand in Seattle.
• We discussed our expansion in Seattle.

Complete the sentences

• The board reached a final (decide) ____ regarding the Austin office.
• We need to check the (available) ____ of funds in London.
• Our team submitted a strong (propose) ____ for the Manchester project.
• The rapid (expand) ____ surprised executives in New York.
• There was a clear (prefer) ____ for the Chicago team.
• We must evaluate the (perform) ____ of our staff in Denver.

Sources: photo by Polina ⠀ on Pexels