2.30 Nominalisation — turning verbs into nouns — Epoché
What you will be able to do Turn any verb into a noun by capitalising the infinitive: das Rauchen , beim Lesen , etwas zum Lesen . Recognise the main noun suffixes and their gender: -ung , -heit , -keit are always feminine. Turn adjectives into nouns: das Gute , etwas Neues , nichts Besonderes . Read the noun-heavy style of written German and translate it back into a verb-based English sentence: nach seiner Ankunft = after he arrived . Sentences from this lesson, before the explanation. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Mit Geld kann man sich weder Gesundheit noch Glück kaufen. [1] Money cannot buy health, nor happiness. Du wirst immer etwas Besonderes für mich sein. [2] You'll always be special to me. Wir haben viel über Gesundheit gesprochen. [3] We talked a lot about health. Du hast eine gute Entscheidung getroffen. [4] You made a good decision. Gibt es etwas Besonderes, was du essen willst? [5] Is there something in particular that you want to eat? Du hast zwei Möglichkeiten. [6] You've two choices. Prerequisites : 2.29 — you need the genders and articles from 2.3 Grammar , the dative after prepositions from 4.5 Cases , the contractions beim and zum , and the compound method from 5.11 Vocabulary . Spoken German, like spoken English, tells a story with verbs: Als er ankam, haben wir gegessen. Written German, especially in administration, science and the press, prefers nouns: Nach seiner Ankunft … Linguists call this the Nominalstil , the nominal style, and it is the second great obstacle of written German after the extended attribute. The good news is that the nouns are built by a small number of regular rules. Once you can see the verb or adjective inside a noun, a page of official German becomes much less dense. The patterns Pattern Gender Example From English infinitive with a capital neuter das Lesen lesen reading verb stem + -ung feminine die Entscheidung entscheiden decision adjective + -heit feminine die Freiheit frei freedom adjective in -ig , -lich , -bar + -keit feminine die Möglichkeit möglich possibility adjective with a capital and an ending neuter (thing), masc./fem. (person) das Gute , etwas Neues gut , neu the good, something new verb stem without ending mostly masculine der Lauf , der Schlag laufen , schlagen run, blow Two rules save a lot of looking up. First, every noun formed with the suffixes -ung , -heit , -keit , -schaft and -ion is feminine and takes -en in the plural ( die Nation, die Nationen ). Watch for look-alikes where the ending is not a suffix: der Sprung , der Schwung , das Stadion . Second, every infinitive used as a noun is neuter and normally has no plural (a few that have become ordinary nouns do: die Leben , die Verbrechen ). After etwas , nichts , viel and wenig , an adjective noun takes the strong neuter ending: etwas Neues , nichts Besonderes . In real sentences The infinitive as a noun. With beim it means while doing ; with zum it means for doing . German English Rauchen tötet. [7] Smoking kills. Rauchen verboten. [8] No smoking. Iss nicht beim Lesen! [9] Don't eat while reading. Viel Spaß beim Lesen! [10] Happy reading! Hast du was zum Lesen? [11] Do you have something to read? Nach dem Essen lerne ich Englisch. [12] I study English after dinner. Nouns in -ung , -heit , -keit . German English Es ist Ihre Entscheidung. [13] It's your decision. Ich freue mich über diese Entwicklung. [14] I'm delighted with this development. Das ist von großer Bedeutung. [15] It means a great deal. Gesundheit ist alles. [16] Health means everything. Was ist Freiheit? [17] What is freedom? Es gibt eine Möglichkeit. [18] There is a possibility. Hatten Sie Schwierigkeiten? [19] Did you have any difficulties? Danke für Ihr Verständnis! [20] Thanks for understanding. Adjectives as nouns. German English Gibt es etwas Neues? [21] Is there anything new? Das ist nichts Besonderes. [22] That's nothing special. Das Gute gewinnt immer. [23] Good always wins. A clause folded into a noun. Where speech would use als er ankam , writing uses nach seiner Ankunft . German English Sie starb zwei Tage nach seiner Ankunft. [24] She died two days after his arrival. Sie ging fünf Minuten nach ihrer Ankunft. [25] She left five minutes after having arrived. Am Tag nach seiner Ankunft werde ich fortgehen. [26] The day after he arrives, I'll leave. How English does it English uses -ing for almost everything. English turns a verb into a noun with -ing : smoking , reading , swimming . German has a precise equivalent: the infinitive with a capital letter and the article das . Rauchen tötet is smoking kills . The difference is that the German form is a real noun: it takes articles and prepositions, and it is written with a capital letter. The English Latinate suffixes match the German native ones. Where English borrows a noun from French or Latin, German usually builds its own with a native suffix. English -tion , -ment , -ance often correspond to German -ung : development / Entwicklung , decision / Entscheidung , importance / Bedeutung . English -ity and -ness often correspond to -heit and -keit : possibility / Möglichkeit , difficulty / Schwierigkeit . English -hood ( childhood ) is the same word as German -heit ( Kindheit ). Gender for free. English nouns have no gender, so English speakers learning German spend years memorising articles. The suffixes in this lesson are the best shortcut there is: thousands of German nouns are formed with -ung , -heit or -keit , and every one of them is die . When you meet a long abstract noun, look at its end before you look it up. Unfold the nouns when you translate. Good English prose avoids long chains of abstract nouns; good English translations of German official texts turn them back into verbs. Nach seiner Ankunft is better as after he arrived than after his arrival ; Danke für Ihr Verständnis is better as thank you for understanding . When you write German yourself, the reverse applies: in a formal letter, one or two