Representing actions with nouns
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Students' problems | page 5 of 7 |
Word class confusion: nouns and verbs
Many students appear to confuse parts of speech when they are writing compositions.
The following examples illustrate cases where a noun form has been chosen instead of a verb. Often, the incorrect noun form comes after a modal verb, like could or may:
I still could not success. (TeleNex Students)
Parents may complaint that their children's academic results have obviously declined. (TeleNex Students)
In other cases, the noun form occurs in the to-infinitive following a verb
(often a linking verb 
) earlier in the sentence:
It is a way for them to choice their subjects in Form Four. (TeleNex Students)
Young people are not mature enough to analysis a matter thoroughly.
(TeleNex Students)
In such cases, it could be that students feel they already have one verb (the modal or the main verb of the clause) and so do not need another. However, there are other examples where there is no preceding verb to confuse the situation:
This encouragement me to hate the clinic.
This encouraged me to hate the clinic.They imagination what happened in the end.
They imagined what happened in the end.The resources are not evenly distribution especially in undeveloped countries.
The resources are not evenly distributed especially in undeveloped countries.
It may be that students have learned the noun form first, and so it is more familiar to
them. They may also be influenced by the fact that in Chinese no change is needed for a
word like sing gung "succeed/success" to be used as a verb or a noun 
.
For further information about the form, see 
Representing
actions with nouns: Forms of nominalisation.
Introduction
Word class confusion: nouns and verbs
