Nominalisation — turning verbs into nouns

In one line

The noun-forming suffix also fixes the noun's gender — and formal writing uses nouns where speech uses verbs.

The table

This table does two jobs: it teaches nominalisation, and it gives you the gender of every new noun — because the suffix decides it. See genre-nom.

Most of these suffixes exist in English too, because English borrowed them from French. Creation, development, opening, beauty, richness, realism — you already know the words. What is new is that each suffix carries a gender, and learning ten suffixes gives you the gender of thousands of nouns.

The most useful pairs

The ones with no suffix (le départ, le choix, la fin) are irregular and have to be memorised separately.

From adjective to noun

Three "measurement" suffixes, all feminine: -eur (longueur, hauteur), -té (beauté, liberté), -esse (richesse, politesse).

English uses -ness and -ity for the same job — richness, equality — and the French -esse/-ité pair maps onto them closely.

Why it matters in writing

Formal French uses a noun where speech uses a clause:

This "nominal style" is a marker of high-level writing and is noticed in exam assessment.

This is where English writing advice will actively mislead you. English style guides tell you to prefer verbs over nouns — "prices rose" is considered better English than "there was a rise in prices", and heavy noun phrases are called bureaucratic. French formal writing rewards exactly what English penalises. On constate une augmentation des prix is good French; the verb version reads as spoken.

So do not translate your best English instincts here. In a French essay, nominalising is an upgrade.

And for headlines and report titles it is nearly compulsory:

Augmentation des prix du carburant — not Les prix ont augmenté

Nominalising with le + adjective

An adjective with an article becomes a noun:

English does this in a limited way — "the rich", "the poor", "the young" — but cannot say "the beautiful" or "the true" as everyday nouns. French can.

Nominalising with the infinitive

An infinitive can act as a noun:

A few infinitives have become full nouns and take articles and plurals: les devoirs — homework.

Where English uses -ing as a noun, French uses the infinitive — "eating is a pleasure" → manger est un plaisir. See gerondif-participe.

Examples

Common mistakes

Why the suffix decides the gender