La Nominalisation
La Nominalisation is basically turning a verb into a noun. To any anglophone, this is often done either by suffixing -ing, -tion, or a few other suffixes depending on the word. The same is in French! Three common suffixes are -ment, -age, and -tion. For nouns ending in -ment or -age, they’ll take the masculine gender while nouns ending in -tion will be feminine. Here are some examples of verbs and their noun forms! Occasionally, the meaning changes a bit. Accroître - Accroissement [m] (to increase - an increase) Agrandir - Agrandissement [m] (to extend/enlarge - extension/enlargement) Apparaître - Apparition [f] (to appear - appearance) Apprendre - Apprentissage [m] (to learn - learning) Développer - Développement [m] (to develop - development) Discuter - Discussion [f] (to discuss - discussion) Disparaître - Disparition [f] (to disappear - disappearance) Élire - Élection [f] (to elect - election) Enseigner - Enseignement [m] (to teach - teaching) Fabriquer - Fabrication [f] (to produce - production) Lancer - Lancement [m] (to launch/throw - launch/début) Manifester - Manifestation [f] (to protest - a protest) Parler - Parlement [m] (to talk - parliament) Sauver - Sauvetage [m] (to save - a rescue) There’s a ton of examples and even the word nominalisation comes from the verb nominaliser. I’m sure there’s some sort of pattern but honestly I just think of what sounds right (which isn’t very useful). At least for Anglophones, a lot of words produced through nominalisation will sound familiar.
