Noun Endings: -tion, -ment, -ness, -ity

These endings turn verbs and adjectives into nouns.

• -tion / -sion come after verbs: inform → information, educate → education, decide → decision
• -ment also comes after verbs: govern → government, improve → improvement, agree → agreement
• -ness comes after adjectives: sad → sadness, kind → kindness, ill → illness
• -ity also comes after adjectives: possible → possibility, able → ability, popular → popularity

Watch the spelling: a final -e drops before -tion (pollute → pollution) but usually stays before -ment (excitement, but argue → argument). -y becomes -i (happy → happiness), and some words change more (explain → explanation, compete → competition). A few nouns end in -ence: different → difference.