A verbal noun in Russian is the part of speech most similar to the English gerund. Despite the fact that formally there is no gerund in the Russian language, the verbal noun has many common features with it. Nevertheless, the main thing when studying such nouns is not to compare them with similar phenomena in other languages, but to "dig into" the essence. After all, their history of origin and use can shed light on many questions: not only philological, but also worldly, and even philosophical.
What is this?
Verbal nouns are a part of speech derived from a verb and performing a nominative function for actions. Simply put, these nouns call actions, give them "names". These "names" fall into two main categories:
- One category names the action itself. For example: create - create, improve - improve, simplify - simplify, heat - heat.
- The second category namesthe one who performs this action: to pursue - the pursuer, to kidnap - the kidnapper, to replace - the deputy, to represent - the representative.
To form such a noun, you can use the suffix method:
- -ni-, -ani-, -eni-: teach - training, instruct - instruction, allow - permission.
- -to-: stack - stack, charge - charge.
The non-suffix way looks like this: burn - burn, fly out - fly out, bribe - bribe.
Why use it?
Ideally, the use of verbal nouns is not strictly necessary and is only required in the following cases:
- When it is impossible to find a simpler verbal analogue or restructure the sentence.
- When a restructured proposal or an alternative proposal does not sound formal enough, does not match the tone of the event or resource for publication.
But if verbal nouns were used only for these purposes, they would not enter into everyday communication so easily. However, under the guise of "innocence" are hiding other goals.
Why is it really being used?
Politicians, economists, labists, media workers and just resourceful people have found alternative uses for the verbal noun. It is enough just to look at them more closely to independently come to that conclusion.the same conclusion. In fact, all examples of verbal nouns, in or out of context, sound very, very solid. In addition, sentences with them are often overloaded and difficult to understand, so it is easier to hide the true meaning behind them.
How to deal with supply congestion?
It's a matter of practice to identify chains of verbal nouns and turn them into something harmonious. For example, an overloaded version would sound like this:
- The start of the departure of the aircraft is scheduled for six hours.
- Experts have decided to immediately implement a plan to improve the product.
Now let's try to simplify these sentences:
- The plane will take off at six o'clock.
- Experts decided to immediately implement a plan to improve the product. The experts decided to improve the product immediately.
