General English Level 6 Version 2.1 © 2004 acl Pty Ltd GELEV6 Unit 02 Topic 01.doc  LANGUAGE FOCUS 05 Nominalisations The article says: However, if plans go ahead to demolish the old four-storey King George building on York Square … The writer uses the verb "demolish". And: Demolition will begin soon after, and we should see the new high-rise building … The writer uses the noun "demolition". Choosing the noun form is called nominalisation. Nominalisation is used more often in written than in spoken texts. Nominalisation can help to keep the sentence short. If the writer hadn't used the noun form, the second sentence above would have been much longer: The company will begin to demolish the building soon after, and we should see the new high-rise building ... The article also says: He said he would be discussing the various options with his staff as soon as he has definite news from the building's owners. The building's owners are holding discussions with Construction giants Wilmlow … If we look at other cities around the world, they are all expanding upward. The plans for the new building include an expansion of the current car park facilities … Information We also use nominalisations so we can add an adjective: The politician commented on the new health reforms. The politician made an interesting comment on the new health reforms. Look VERB NOUN to comment comment to connect connection to approach approach to consult consultation to construct construction to introduce introduction to agree agreement to lose loss to know knowledge to imagine imagination to advise advice 42