Nominalisation in written French
CEFR B2 · part 2
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
The past subjunctive and sequence of tensesForming the past subjunctive and choosing between present and past depending on whether…Reflexive verbs and their agreementConjugating reflexive verbs with être and deciding whether the participle agrees…The conditional for unconfirmed informationRecognising the conditional French journalism uses for unconfirmed information, and not…Faire, prendre, mettre and avoir beauLearning French fixed combinations whole, instead of translating them word by word.Accents and the cedillaPlacing é, è, ê and ç correctly, and knowing that in French an accent changes the sound…Gender that does not match your languageChoosing le or la for nouns whose gender does not match your own language.The rule, in three lines
Where speech puts a verb, written French puts a noun: «après la fermeture de l'usine» instead of «après que l'usine a fermé». The suffixes are -tion, -ment, -age, -ure, and they cannot be guessed: they are learnt with the word.
The usual slip. Writing everything with verbs and subordinate clauses. It is correct but reads like homework; and picking the wrong suffix produces words that do not exist.
Why it catches you out. English prefers verbs and short clauses even in formal writing, and where it does nominalise the word is often a Latin cousin built differently. So the habit itself, not just the vocabulary, has to change.