Nominalization Strategies | Romanian Grammar

Nominalization is the act of turning a verb or a whole clause into a noun phrase — taking "she arrived" and packaging it as "her arrival", or "the fact that she arrived". It is the single most powerful register-raising tool in Romanian: where casual speech strings together finite că-clauses ("the fact that..., and that..., which means that..."), formal, academic, and legal Romanian compresses them into dense, articled noun phrases. Compare Faptul că a venit ne-a surprins ("The fact that he came surprised us") with the loose A venit, și asta ne-a surprins — same content, very different polish. This page covers the three main strategies — the long infinitive, the supine-noun, and the all-purpose faptul că — and shows how to trade a clause for its nominalization.

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Nominalization is fundamentally about packing a process into a thing so it can slot into a sentence like any noun — as a subject, an object, or after a preposition. The payoff is density and formality: one noun phrase can carry what would otherwise need a full subordinate clause, which is exactly why academic and legal Romanian leans on it so heavily.

Strategy 1: the long infinitive (-re)

Every Romanian verb has a long infinitive ending in -re (a citi → citire, a merge → mergere, a forma → formare), and this form behaves as a feminine noun — it takes the definite article, forms a genitive, and pluralizes. Citirea cărții is "the reading of the book"; formarea profesorilor is "the training of teachers". This is the most formal/academic/legal nominalizer, the one you meet in essays, statutes, and technical prose.

Citirea cărții mi-a luat o săptămână întreagă.

Reading the book took me a whole week. (long-infinitive nominalization as subject; lit. 'the reading of the book')

La citirea testamentului au fost prezenți toți moștenitorii.

At the reading of the will, all the heirs were present. (formal/legal — a classic long-infinitive context)

Formarea continuă a angajaților este o prioritate.

The continuing training of employees is a priority. (academic/corporate register)

Notice that the long infinitive takes a genitive complement (citirea cărții — "the reading of the book"), exactly like an ordinary noun. This is what distinguishes it from the plain verb: a citi cartea ("to read the book", direct object) becomes citirea cărții ("the reading of the book", genitive). Many long infinitives have also fully lexicalized into everyday nouns — mâncare (food), plimbare (a walk), adunare (a meeting/assembly) — losing their verbal feel entirely. The fuller treatment is on the long infinitive as a noun.

Strategy 2: the supine-noun (-ul)

A second, more concrete and colloquial nominalizer is the supine-noun: the participle/supine form taking the definite article -ul to name an activity — mersul (walking/the gait), scrisul ((hand)writing), cititul (reading), înotul (swimming), fumatul (smoking). Where the long infinitive (mergerea) is abstract and formal, the supine-noun (mersul) names the down-to-earth activity.

Fumatul este interzis în interior.

Smoking is prohibited indoors. (supine-noun — the standard sign wording)

Cititul înainte de culcare mă ajută să adorm.

Reading before bed helps me fall asleep. (supine-noun naming the everyday activity)

Mersul pe bicicletă e cel mai bun mod de a explora orașul.

Cycling is the best way to explore the city. (mersul pe bicicletă — supine-noun activity phrase)

Verb	Long infinitive (-re, abstract/formal)	Supine-noun (-ul, concrete activity)
a merge	mergerea (the going/motion)	mersul (walking, the gait)
a scrie	scrierea (the act/work of writing)	scrisul (handwriting; writing as activity)
a citi	citirea (the reading of X)	cititul (reading as a pastime)

The relationship to the supine's other jobs (evaluative greu de citit, the to-do am de citit) is covered on advanced supine constructions; here the supine has simply frozen into an activity noun.

Strategy 3: faptul că — the workhorse

The most versatile and most common nominalizer is faptul că ("the fact that"), which wraps an entire finite clause in a noun shell. Faptul ("the fact") is a real noun; că + clause is its content. The whole thing — faptul că ai mințit ("the fact that you lied") — then functions as a single noun phrase, free to be a subject, an object, or sit after a preposition. This is the bridge nominalizer: it lets you keep a full clause (no need to find a noun for the verb) while still packaging it as a noun.

Faptul că ai mințit mă supără cel mai tare.

The fact that you lied is what upsets me most. (faptul că-clause as subject)

Mă deranjează faptul că nimeni nu m-a anunțat.

What bothers me is that nobody told me. (faptul că-clause as object of deranjează)

Din faptul că nu a răspuns, deduc că e supărat.

From the fact that he didn't answer, I gather he's upset. (faptul că after a preposition — only a noun phrase can sit here)

The last example shows why nominalization matters structurally: you cannot put a bare că-clause after a preposition like din ("from"). You need a noun there — and faptul supplies it, with că + clause as its complement. This is the workhorse move that turns an unembeddable clause into something a preposition can govern.

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When you need a clause to go somewhere only a noun can go — after a preposition (din, prin, datorită), or as a tidy subject — wrap it in faptul că. Din faptul că..., datorită faptului că... ("owing to the fact that..."). It's the most reliable way to nominalize without hunting for a dedicated verbal noun.

Strategy 4: the articled infinitive after prepositions

The bare short infinitive can also be nominalized lightly when it follows certain prepositions — most notably a + infinitive meaning "of/for ___ing" in set patterns like modul de a gândi ("the way of thinking"), capacitatea de a învăța ("the capacity to learn"). Here the infinitive acts as a compact verbal noun without the full -re machinery.

Are un mod ciudat de a se exprima.

He has a strange way of expressing himself. (de a + infinitive — light nominalization)

Capacitatea de a învăța din greșeli e esențială.

The capacity to learn from mistakes is essential. (formal — de a învăța nominalized after capacitatea)

Clause vs nominalization: the register trade

The heart of this topic is being able to convert between a finite clause and its nominalization, choosing by register. The clause is plainer and more conversational; the nominalization is denser and more formal. Watch the same content shift register:

Finite clause (plainer)	Nominalization (formal/dense)
După ce am citit cartea, ...	După citirea cărții, ...
E interzis să fumezi aici.	Fumatul este interzis aici.
Faptul că a întârziat (everyday)	Întârzierea lui (compact, formal)
M-a surprins că a venit.	Sosirea lui m-a surprins.

După citirea sentinței, sala a izbucnit în aplauze.

After the reading of the verdict, the room burst into applause. (nominalized — compare the looser 'După ce s-a citit sentința...')

Sosirea trenului a fost anunțată cu întârziere.

The arrival of the train was announced late. (nominalized subject — formal; vs 'Trenul a sosit și au anunțat târziu')

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The skill to cultivate: in formal writing, scan for chains of că-clauses and ask which could become noun phrases. Faptul că a întârziat ne-a costat tightens to Întârzierea lui ne-a costat ("His delay cost us"). Overusing finite că-clauses where a clean nominalization fits is the surest sign of unpolished, spoken-sounding prose — but over-nominalizing makes text dense and bureaucratic, so trade deliberately, not reflexively.

Common Mistakes

Putting a bare că-clause after a preposition (you need faptul):

❌ Din că nu a răspuns, deduc că e supărat.

Incorrect — a preposition needs a noun; wrap the clause: Din faptul că nu a răspuns...

✅ Din faptul că nu a răspuns, deduc că e supărat.

From the fact that he didn't answer, I gather he's upset.

Giving the long infinitive a direct object instead of a genitive:

❌ Citirea cartea mi-a luat o săptămână.

Incorrect — the long-infinitive noun takes a genitive complement: citirea cărții.

✅ Citirea cărții mi-a luat o săptămână.

Reading the book took me a week.

Confusing the abstract long infinitive with the concrete supine-noun:

❌ Mergerea pe jos îmi place. [for the everyday activity of walking]

Off-register — for the concrete pastime use the supine-noun: Mersul pe jos îmi place.

✅ Mersul pe jos îmi place.

I like walking. (concrete activity)

Stacking finite clauses where a nominalization would be cleaner (style, not grammar):

❌ Faptul că a întârziat și faptul că nu a sunat ne-a costat mult.

Clunky clause-chaining — nominalize: Întârzierea și lipsa unui telefon ne-au costat mult.

✅ Întârzierea lui ne-a costat mult.

His delay cost us a lot. (tight nominalization)

Key Takeaways

Nominalization packages a verb or whole clause as a noun phrase, the chief register-raising device in Romanian.
The long infinitive (citirea cărții) is the formal/academic/legal nominalizer; it takes the definite article and a genitive complement.
The supine-noun (mersul, scrisul, fumatul) names the concrete activity and is more everyday than the abstract long infinitive.
Faptul că is the workhorse: it wraps a full finite clause as a noun phrase, and it is the way to put a clause after a preposition (din faptul că, datorită faptului că).
The articled / de a infinitive (modul de a gândi) lightly nominalizes after certain nouns and prepositions.
The core skill is trading a clause for its nominalization by register — but trade deliberately; over-nominalizing turns prose dense and bureaucratic.

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