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Beware of nominalizations (AKA zombie nouns) - Helen Sword

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Few mistakes sour good writing like nominalizations, or, as Helen Sword likes to call them, zombie nouns. Zombie nouns transform simple and straightforward prose into verbose and often confusing writing. Keep your nouns away from elongating nominalizations!

“The grandfather of all nominalizations, antidisestablishmentarianism, contains at least two verbs, three adjectives, and six other nouns inside its distended belly.” Can you identify that many potential words? (Hint: Not all of them can be found in a dictionary!)

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Meet The Creators

  • Animator Bran Dougherty-Johnson
  • Sound Designer Hatfarm
  • Educator Helen Sword
  • Narrator Helen Sword

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