In English, a nominalization refers to the grammatical construct whereby a verb, adjective, or adverb functions as a noun. Examples:
Noun/Nominalization | Verb, adjective, or adverb | |
Action | Act | |
Administration | Administer | |
Cessation | Cease | |
Invention | Invent | |
exploration | explore | |
justification | justify |
To avoid nominalizations, make sure to use more action verbs in your sentences. To do this, you should:
- Find the nouns in the sentence.
- Look for a verb form of that noun.
- Try to reduce the numbers of helping verbs you are using.