Nominalization: Verbal Nouns and Nominal Style

Open any Ukrainian law, contract, scholarly article or official report and you will meet sentence after sentence built not around verbs but around verbal nouns: підписа́ння уго́ди "the signing of the agreement," прийняття́ рі́шення "the taking of a decision," проведе́ння переговорів "the conducting of negotiations." This is nominalization — the conversion of an action into a noun, typically formed with the suffix -ння or -ття and trailing a chain of genitive complements. It is the engine of formal register: it lets a writer compress a whole subordinate clause («після то́го як він прибу́в» "after he arrived") into a tight noun phrase («після його́ прибуття́» "after his arrival"). At C1 you need to do two things with it — decode the dense nominal prose of officialdom, and deploy it yourself where the register calls for it — while knowing the catch: good Ukrainian style resists piling nouns too high, and the verb is often the better choice.

Forming the verbal noun: -ння and -ття

The verbal noun is built from the verb stem plus a neuter suffix. Two facts matter: which suffix and where the stress lands.

-ння attaches to most verbs, on the stem that ends in the theme vowel of the infinitive (-а-, -и-/-е-→-ен-, -і-). The result is a doubled н — see the doubled-consonants page for why -нн- doubles here. -ття appears on a small set of monosyllabic-root verbs (бити, пити, мити, крити, взяти, прибути).

Two stress patterns to internalize: polysyllabic -а́ння nouns are stressed on the suffix (чита́ння, навча́ння, завда́ння, запита́ння), while the short -ття and the disyllabic -ння nouns from monosyllabic roots are stressed on the ending (життя́, знання́, прибуття́, відкриття́). A handful are stem-stressed exceptions, notably рі́шення "decision."

The genitive complement: вивче́ння мо́ви

A verbal noun does not just sit there — it inherits the verb's object, now expressed in the genitive (this is the "genitive of the object," a cornerstone of the genitive's 'of' function). "To study the language" (вивча́ти мо́ву, accusative) becomes "the study of the language" (вивче́ння мо́ви, genitive). Stack several and you get the genitive chain typical of formal prose.

The accusative object of the verb (мо́ву, уго́ду, завда́ння) reappears as a genitive under the noun (мо́ви, уго́ди, завда́ння) — getting that case-swap automatic is the technical heart of producing nominal style.

Rewriting clauses as noun phrases

The reason formal Ukrainian reaches for verbal nouns is compression: a subordinate clause, with its conjunction and finite verb, collapses into a preposition + noun phrase. The most common rewrites:

• після то́го як він прибу́в → після його́ прибуття́ ("after his arrival")
• для то́го щоб обговори́ти пробле́му → для обговоре́ння пробле́ми ("for the discussion of the problem")
• коли́ зако́н ухвали́ли → пі́сля ухва́лення зако́ну ("after the law's adoption")
• тому́ що ціни́ зросли́ → че́рез зроста́ння цін ("because of the rise in prices")

This is exactly the texture of journalistic and academic register and pairs naturally with the impersonal and passive style, which also drains the personal agent out of the sentence.

When NOT to nominalize: the verb is often better

Here is the honest part, and it is a genuine feature of good Ukrainian rather than a stylistic preference imported from English. Native editors and language guides actively warn against дієслівно-іме́нні "noun-strings" — chains of verbal nouns that bury the action under abstract nouns and a queue of genitives. The disease has a name in Ukrainian usage criticism: heavy «віддієслівні іменники» prose reads as bureaucratic and lifeless. The cure is to give the action back to a verb.

• Bureaucratic: здійсни́ти підви́щення я́кості обслуго́вування ("to carry out a raising of the quality of service")
• Living: підви́щити я́кість обслуго́вування ("to raise the quality of service")

Notice the worst symptom — a light verb (здійсни́ти, прове́сти, забезпе́чити "carry out / conduct / ensure") propping up a verbal noun that already names the action. Whenever you catch yourself writing здійсни́ти + verbal noun, ask whether the plain verb says it better. Usually it does.

Source-language comparison

For an English speaker, the surprise is how far Ukrainian takes nominalization and how the complement is marked. English nominalizes too ("the signing of the agreement," "his arrival"), but it can lean on the "-ing" gerund, which keeps an accusative-like object ("signing the agreement"). Ukrainian has no gerund of that kind: the verbal noun is a full neuter noun and its object must go into the genitive — підписа́ння уго́ди, never підписа́ння уго́ду. So the case-swap (accusative → genitive) is the mechanical step English does not require. The reassuring half is the *style advice transfers exactly: just as English style guides damn "nominalese" and praise strong verbs, Ukrainian editors damn віддієслівний noun-strings and praise the live verb. The instinct "could this be a verb instead?" is the right one in both languages.

For a Russian speaker, the -ние/-тие ↔ -ння/-ття correspondence is close, but mind the doubled -нн- (Ukrainian чита́ння, not Russian-style чита́ние with a single н) and the -ття group (життя́, відкриття́), plus stress differences. The genitive-complement and the anti-nominalese style advice are shared.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Verbal nouns in -ння (doubled н) and -ття (monosyllabic roots) turn an action into a noun: чита́ння, навча́ння, прибуття́, відкриття́.
• Stress: polysyllabic -а́ння on the suffix (чита́ння, навча́ння); short -ття and disyllabic -ння on the ending (життя́, знання́, прибуття́); рі́шення is a stem-stressed exception.
• The object of the underlying verb becomes a genitive complement: вивча́ти мо́ву → вивче́ння мо́ви.
• Nominalization compresses a clause into a noun phrase: «після то́го як він прибу́в» → «після його́ прибуття́».
• Good Ukrainian avoids heavy noun-strings — a light verb + verbal noun (здійсни́ти підви́щення) or three genitives in a row signals over-nominalization; give the action back to the verb.