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How to form noun phrases for actions in English?

By: Isabel McKay Wed Oct 02 2024
English
Nouns, Verbs, Sentence Structure

In English, you can use action nouns (nouns that come from verbs) to create noun phrases that describe complex situations. These phrases act like nouns in the sentence, but they are also a little like verbs because they describe an action. Here is one example of long noun phrases for an action in English:

Mark complained about Mrs. Powell’s repeatedly forgetting her students’ names.

  • The whole phrase Mrs Powell’s repeatedly forgetting her students’ names acts like a noun in the sentence, and the whole phrase could be replaced by a pronoun. For example:

    Mark complained about it.

  • But the action noun forgetting is also a little like a verb: it has a subject (Mrs. Powell), an object (her students’ names), and is even described by an adverb (repeatedly).

Though short noun phrases for actions are quite common in English, longer, more complex action noun phrases are found in academic and formal writing. This post is therefore intended for more advanced English learners. For a basic introduction to gerund phrases (the most basic type of action noun phrase), check out our post on using gerunds in English instead.

In this post we’ll talk about how to create two types of long action noun phrases in English: gerund phrases and action noun phrases. Hopefully, reading this post will help raise the level of your English writing!

Let’s get into the construction of complex action noun phrases!

Table of Contents

    What are the two types of action noun phrases in English?

    There are two main ways to form a phrase around a gerund or action noun in English:

    • Gerund Phrases are formed by starting with a verb phrase (a verb + associated words). You can turn the whole verb phrase into one big gerund by adding -ing to the first verb:

      Verb Phrase:

      sing lullabies softly

      Gerund Phrase:

      I like singing lullabies softly.

    • Action Noun Phrases are formed around any action noun by adding noun modifiers:

      Action Noun:

      discussion

      Action Noun Phrase:

      Our long discussion of politics made me tired.

    Let’s look at these two possibilities a little more closely.

    How to form a gerund phrase from a verb phrase?

    To create a gerund phrase from a verb phrase, just create the verb phrase, then put the first verb in that verb phrase into its gerund form.

    A verb phrase is a verb plus some associated words like objects, prepositional phrases, adverbs, subordinate clauses, and more. Here are some examples.

    Verb plus...
    Verb phrase
    Gerund phrase

    object

    clean the house

    cleaning the house

    bring her some flowers

    bringing her some flowers

    prepositional phrase

    run in the rain

    running in the rain

    go to school for three hours

    going to school for three hours

    adverb

    sing beautifully

    singing beautifully

    swim fast

    swimming fast

    subordinate clause

    say that he is tired

    saying that he is tired

    sleep while it is dark

    sleeping while it is dark

    infinitive verb

    prefer to come

    preferring to come

    gerund phrase

    like eating chocolate

    liking eating chocolate

    You can also turn a verb phrase with auxiliary verbs into a gerund. When this happens, the auxiliary takes the gerund ending (-ing). For example:

    • Gerund of a passive verb:

      be found → being found

      I do not like being found when I am playing hide-and-seek!

    • Gerund of a perfect verb:

      have slept → having slept

      Having slept 8 hours is a wonderful feeling!

      Tip

      Use perfect gerunds to emphasize that you are talking about a finished action.

    However, we do not do this with all auxiliary verbs:

    • We do not turn continuous verbs into gerund phrases.

      be catching bugs

      ❌ I like being catching bugs.

    • It is also impossible to turn a phrase with a modal auxiliary (could, can, should, might, ...) into a gerund phrase, because modal verbs do not have a gerund form.

      • can sleep

        ❌ I like canning sleep.

      • might come to visit

        ❌ He suggested mighting come to visit.

      So if you want to form a noun phrase about possibility, capability, etc., you will need to choose a phrasing that does not use a modal. For example:

      • can sleep = be able to sleep

        ✅ I like being able to sleep.

      • might come to visit = potentially come to visit

        ✅ He suggested potentially coming to visit for my birthday.

      Or you can always just use a subordinate clause instead:

      • ✅ I like that I can sleep.

        ✅ He suggested that he might come to visit.

    TipCan you add a subject?

    Officially, you cannot add a subject to a gerund phrase. However, most native English speakers will still do it, at least in speech:

    I didn’t like him eating my dinner.

    → Notice that this is an object pronoun!

    John eating my dinner annoyed me.

    But if you want to be completely correct, add a subject for your gerund by using noun modifiers. Read on to discover how!

    How to form an action noun phrase by adding noun modifiers?

    The other way to form an action noun phrase is to form the action noun first and then enhance its meaning by adding the kinds of modifiers you can add to other nouns.

    TipWhat is an “action noun”?

    An action noun is any noun for an action or for a person, place, or thing that is always involved in an action. Gerunds (verb + -ing) are the most common type of action nouns in English, but not all action nouns are gerunds. Here are some other common endings for English action nouns:

    Ending
    Meaning
    Examples

    verb + -er

    "one who verbs"

    driver, singer, server, poker, ...

    verb + -ation

    "act of verbing"

    pronunciation, formation, interpretation, ...

    verb + -ment

    "act of verbing"

    retirement, fulfillment, enforcement, ...

    verb + -tion

    "act of verbing"

    destruction, distribution, evaluation, ...

    Here are some of the noun modifiers you can add to action nouns:

    Modifier type
    With an action noun
    With a gerund

    definite article

    the driver

    the singing

    demonstrative adjective

    this driver

    this singing

    quantity adjective

    some drivers

    some singing

    possessive adjective

    my driver

    my singing

    possessive nouns

    Maria’s driver

    Maria’s singing

    of-phrases

    the driver of a truck

    the singing of a song

    adjectives

    loud dogs

    loud singing

    other prepositional phrases

    There was a dog on TV.

    There was singing on TV.

    purpose infinitives

    a dog to walk

    singing to do

    ... and more!

    Let’s look a little more closely at the sorts of modifiers we use with action nouns.

    How to use possessors with action nouns in English?

    The possessor of an action can be given using a possessive adjective (e.g. my, her, their), a possessive noun (e.g. Randall’s), or a of-phrase (e.g. of his or of the dog). But this possessor can have a few different meanings, depending on the action you are describing:

    • When the noun describes an action that usually does not take an object (an “intransitive verb”), the possessor is understood to be the subject of the verb:

      • The children’s crying

        → the children cry

      • Their crying

        → they cry

      • The crying of children

        → the children cry

      • The children’s arrival

        → the children arrive

      • Their arrival

        → they arrive

      • The arrival of the children

        → the children arrive

    • With the noun describes an action that usually does take an object (a “transitive verb”)...

      • An of-phrase will tell you the object of the verb:

        • The teaching of children

          → someone teaches children

        • The cleaning of the kitchen

          → someone cleans the kitchen

        • The enforcement of laws

          → someone enforces the laws

      • A possessor noun or possessive adjective will represent the subject of the verb:

        • Maria’s teaching of children

          → Maria teaches the children

        • My cleaning of the kitchen

          → I clean the kitchen

        • Their enforcement of laws.

          → they enforce laws
        Important

        If a gerund has a possessor, you can usually drop the of before the object.

        • ✅ My cleaning of the kitchen

        • ✅ My cleaning the kitchen

        But if the action noun is not a gerund or if the gerund has any other noun modifiers do not delete the of.

        • ✅ His inspection of the kitchen
          ❌ His inspection the kitchen

          → inspection is not a gerund

        • ✅ My slow cleaning of the kitchen
          ❌ My slow cleaning the kitchen

          → slow is another modifier

    Here are a couple of tricky cases to keep in mind about using possessors with action nouns:

    • Many verbs in English can be either transitive or intransitive, and so when they are used with only an of-phrase, you will need to use context to help you discover the meaning. For example sing can be transitive or intransitive:

      • The singing of angels.

        → The angels sang. → intransitive

      • The singing of a lullaby.

        → Someone sang the lullaby. → transitive

    • When there is only a possessive adjective or possessive noun used to modify a transitive action noun, the meaning depends on the type of action noun you are using:

      • In modern English, the possessor of a transitive gerund is generally still the subject:

        • her teaching

          → she teaches

        • Patrick’s cleaning

          → Patrick cleans

      • However, the possessor of other kinds of transitive action nouns is usually the object instead:

        • her removal

          → someone removed her

        • Marco's treatment

          → someone treats Marco

    • Action nouns that end in -er follow slightly different rules because the meaning of these nouns is a little different:

      • driving = the action "to drive"

      • driver = one who does the action "to drive"

      Because the noun driver stands for both the action and the subject of that action, the possessor is not also the subject. Instead, this can have two meanings:

      Mary's driver can mean:

      • ✅ Someone who drives a car with Mary inside it right now or in general.

      • ✅ Someone who Mary employs to drive cars.

    Gerunds that come from verb phrases vs. action noun phrases with noun modifiers

    Gerunds that come from verb phrases usually involve another noun from the sentence in the action that the gerund represents, but gerunds with noun modifiers usually refer to an action in general. What does that mean?

    Let’s compare two examples. There is a difference in the structure of these two gerunds, but there is also a difference in their meaning:

    • John loves singing beautifully.

      = John loves when John sings beautifully.

      → This has an adverb, so it comes from a verb phrase

    • John loves beautiful singing.

      = John loves to listen to anyone sing beautifully.

      → This has an adjective, which is a noun modifier.

    Do you see the difference?

    • When the gerund comes from a verb phrase, the subject of the sentence is involved in the action singing beautifully.

    • When the gerund has noun modifiers, the subject of the sentence is not involved in the action singing.

    Here is the same difference when the gerunds are a subjects instead:

    • Singing beautifully is always enjoyable.

      → You will be happy when you sing beautifully.

    • Beautiful singing is always enjoyable.

      → You will be happy when you listen to beautiful singing.

    If a gerund is only one word, and does not have any modifiers, both meanings are possible:

    John loves singing.

    → John loves when John sings (more common meaning)
    → John loves when anyone sings (less common)
    Tip

    A good way to think about this difference:

    • Gerunds with noun modifiers are “closed.” The only nouns that can be involved in the action are nouns that are part of the noun phrase (i.e. possessors, of-phrases, ...)

    • Gerunds that are formed from verb phrases are “open.” They have room to include nouns that are outside of the gerund phrase in the action.

    Summary

    In this post we’ve talked about how to form complex action noun phrases in English. Here are the main points to take away from this lesson:

    • In English, we often use long noun phrases describing actions in formal or academic writing.

    • There are two main ways to build long action noun phrases:

      • Create a verb phrase, and replace the first verb with a gerund:

        The angel’s singing beautifully about starlight enchanted me.

      • Use noun modifiers to provide subjects, objects, etc. to an action noun or gerund:

        The angel’s beautiful singing about starlight enchanted me.

    • When you use noun modifiers for an action noun, remember these two main points:

      • If the action is intransitive the possessor will always be the subject of the action:

        The children’s crying

      • If the action is transitive, an of-phrase gives the object and a possessive noun or possessive adjective gives the subject:

        My cleaning of the kitchen

    • An action noun phrase that is formed from a verb phrase is “open” to involve other nouns in the sentence in the action, but an action noun phrase that uses noun modifiers is “closed,” so the action cannot involve other nouns in the sentence.

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