Nominalisation and Academic Register

Nominalisation converts verbs or adjectives into nouns. It is the defining feature of formal German. Key patterns: -ung (fem., verbal stem + -ung), -heit/-keit (fem., from adjectives), -nis (usu. neut.), substantivised infinitive (always neut., capitalised). Substantivised adjectives decline like attributive adjectives — das Gute but etwas Gutes. Nominalisations often take a specific preposition that may differ from the verb: hoffen auf but die Hoffnung auf. Avoid chaining more than two in a row (Nominalstil).