Representing actions with nouns

Forms of nominalisation

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The English language allows users to refer to actions or processes (often in a general way) by using an -ing form:

"Fortune-telling is a daily routine,'' said Mr Lam, a consultant on fung shui, palmistry and astrology for more than 20 years. (SCMP 7/8/92)

Note that the -ing form can be preceded by a possessive pronoun, which makes the action or process more specific:

His teaching is very good, as you'd expect. (Bank of English)

	The ability to form an -ing form (or noun form) from any verb provides a speaker with a great deal of flexibility, because it is possible to use the -ing form as the subject of the verb (as in the above examples), the object of the verb, or the object of a preposition:
	The resort fronts a lagoon and offers snorkelling, windsurfing and sailing. (Bank of English) Quite often the girls are now going in for engineering which you'd never have known a few years ago. (Bank of English)

	Most verbs, eg to found, have the possibility for two nominalised forms (foundation, which tends to be used for the actual institution, ie the outcome of the founding; and founding, which refers the actual event), but there are many verbs for which the -ing form is the only one available, eg coming and going.
	The -ing nouns which refer to sports and hobbies are almost invariably used with a form of the verb to go .
	Because most -ing forms are used to refer to activities in a general way, they tend to be mainly uncountable. However, there are still quite a few which are countable .

For further information about the reasons people have for using nominalisations, see
Representing actions with nouns: Reasons for representing actions with nouns.

Introduction
 Differences between spoken and written English
 Three different types of nominalisation
 Verb to noun
 Verb to -ing form (commonly called gerunds)
 Another type of verb-to-noun nominalisation
 Adjective to noun
 Clause to noun