Casa · C2 Mastery · Lesson 15 of 20 · Step 2

International Finance

Nominalisation at scale — converting verbal to nominal style

Transform verbal constructions into nominal style for academic register
Recognise how nominalisation affects information density and tone
Deploy international finance vocabulary at mastery level
Write dense, nominalised prose appropriate to academic and institutional contexts

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Grammar

Nominalisation at scale — converting verbal to nominal academic style

Nominalisation converts verbs and adjectives into nouns, increasing information density and formality. "The company expanded rapidly" becomes "The rapid expansion of the company." "They decided to invest" becomes "The decision to invest." At C2 level, nominalisation is used systematically to create the dense, impersonal prose characteristic of academic, legal, and financial writing. Patterns: verb → noun (investigate → investigation, regulate → regulation); adjective → noun (unstable → instability, complex → complexity). Nominalised prose packs more information per sentence but can become impenetrable if overused.

Verbal: "The government regulated the market because prices were unstable." → Nominal: "Government regulation of the market was prompted by price instability."

Verbal: "They decided to divest and restructured the company." → Nominal: "The decision to divest precipitated a comprehensive restructuring of the company."

Verbal: "Banks failed to capitalise adequately, which caused the crisis." → Nominal: "Inadequate bank capitalisation was a primary cause of the crisis."

Exercises · type, then check

1. Convert each verbal sentence into nominalised academic style.

1.Verbal: "The currency depreciated sharply." Nominal:

2.Verbal: "They acquired the company and then restructured it." Nominal:

3.Verbal: "Regulators failed to intervene, which destabilised the market." Nominal:

4.Verbal: "Investors lost confidence because the bank was not transparent." Nominal:

5.Verbal: "They securitised the loans and then sold them to investors." Nominal:

2. Match each verb to its nominalised form.

1.regulate

2.divest

3.amortise

4.capitalise

5.deleverage

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Reading

The Density of Financial Prose

The language of international finance is characterised by an exceptionally high density of nominalisation — the systematic conversion of verbs and adjectives into nouns, which compresses information and depersonalises agency. Consider a typical sentence from a central bank communiqué: "The deterioration in global trade conditions, coupled with persistent inflationary pressures and the tightening of monetary policy, has necessitated a reassessment of growth projections for the forthcoming fiscal year." Unpacked into verbal prose, this single sentence would require perhaps three or four: "Global trade conditions have deteriorated. Inflation has remained stubbornly high. Central banks have tightened monetary policy. Because of all this, economists have had to reassess how much the economy will grow next year." The nominalised version is denser, more formal, and — critically — it obscures agency. Who deteriorated trade conditions? Who tightened policy? The nominal style treats these as events without agents, phenomena rather than decisions. This is not accidental: in financial and institutional discourse, nominalisation serves an ideological function. By converting actions into abstract nouns, it naturalises policy decisions, making them appear as inevitable outcomes rather than deliberate choices. The student of C2 English must be able both to produce such prose and to read through it — to identify the agents and decisions that the nominal style has rendered invisible.

1. What does the passage identify as the "ideological function" of nominalisation in financial discourse?

2. How does the passage demonstrate the difference in information density between nominalised and verbal prose?

Speaking · say it out loud, with a partner or alone

1Take a news headline about the economy and "de-nominalise" it — convert it back into simple verbal sentences. Who are the agents that the nominalised version concealed? Does this change how you understand the story?

2Is dense, nominalised prose a mark of sophistication or a barrier to understanding? In what contexts is it appropriate, and in what contexts does it do more harm than good?

Writing

Write the same economic event twice (80-100 words each): once in clear, verbal prose accessible to a general reader, and once in dense, nominalised academic/institutional style. Then write one sentence reflecting on what is gained and lost in each version.

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Finished?

Check your exercises first, then mark the lesson done.