Hidden verbs
A hidden verb is an action turned into a noun and propped up by a weaker verb, as in 'carry out a review' instead of 'review', which makes the sentence longer and slower.
They carried out an inspection of the building. The action in that sentence is inspect, and it is not the verb. It has been turned into the noun inspection, leaving carried out to do the grammatical work. Write They inspected the building and the sentence is shorter, faster, and says exactly the same thing.
Grammarians call the noun form a nominalisation (a noun made from a verb or an adjective). The US federal plain-language guidelines call the pattern a hidden verb, which is the more useful name, because it tells you what to go looking for. You will also see smothered verbs, buried verbs and zombie nouns. All four names describe the same habit.
How to spot a hidden verb
Two signs, and they usually travel together.
A weak propping verb. Make, give, take, have, hold, do, conduct, carry out, perform, provide, reach, come to, undertake, achieve. These verbs carry almost no meaning of their own in this pattern. They are there because the real action has been turned into a noun and the sentence still needs a verb.
An abstract noun with a verb inside it, often followed by of. The destruction of the city. A description of the man. An examination of the evidence. When of follows a noun ending in -tion, check whether the noun wants to be a verb again.
Noun endings to search for
Run a search on these in your draft. Not every hit is a problem, but most problems are hits.
- -tion, -sion: decision, inspection, conclusion, admission, discussion
- -ment: agreement, statement, movement, payment, judgement
- -ance, -ence: assistance, resistance, reference, dependence, appearance
- -al: arrival, refusal, approval, denial, removal
- -ure: failure, closure, departure
- -ity, -ness: ability, similarity, carelessness, awareness (these usually hide adjectives rather than verbs: showed carelessness is was careless)
- -ing used as a noun: the killing of, the handling of
Some hidden verbs have no ending at all, because the noun and the verb are the same word: take a look, give a push, make a change, have a talk, make an attempt, take a glance. A suffix search will not find these, so search for the propping verbs too.
Before and after: hidden verb rewrites
She made a decision to leave. → She decided to leave. Why it works: two words become one, and the verb carries the action instead of a noun.
He gave a description of the man to the police. → He described the man to the police. Why it works: gave a description of is four words doing the job of one.
The guards conducted a search of the cells. → The guards searched the cells. Why it works: conducted is the language of a report. Searched puts us in the corridor with the guards.
There was a refusal on his part to answer. → He refused to answer. Why it works: in the first version nobody refuses; a refusal simply exists. The rewrite puts the man back in the sentence as the one doing it.
The destruction of the village by the soldiers took place at dawn. → At dawn the soldiers destroyed the village. Why it works: the first version has three prepositional phrases (of the village, by the soldiers, at dawn) and a verb, took place, that means nothing. The rewrite has a doer, an action and a target, in that order.
His failure to notice the lorry was the cause of the crash. → He never saw the lorry. Why it works: two hidden verbs (failure, cause) and a linking verb collapse into one plain event. In a scene, the crash itself can follow as the next sentence.
Why hidden verbs matter in fiction
Fiction runs on people doing things. A hidden verb turns a thing someone did into a thing that exists, and it often removes the person who did it, much like the passive voice. An argument broke out has no one in it. Tom and his sister started shouting does. A transitive verb with a named subject tells the reader who did what to whom; a nominalisation tells them that something happened somewhere.
Hidden verbs are also the register of minutes, reports and memos. A narrator who writes she gave consideration to his proposal sounds like a committee, which is fine if the narrator is meant to, and deadening if not. The effect is related to show, don't tell: the reader gets a label for the action rather than the action.
When the noun is the right choice
- The action is the topic. The inspection was a farce. The sentence is about the inspection, so the noun belongs in the subject.
- You are referring back. He apologised. The apology came three years too late. The noun gathers up the earlier sentence.
- The two versions mean different things. Take a walk suggests a leisurely outing; walk is just moving on foot. Have a look is more casual than look.
- The character talks that way. Dialogue is characterisation. A police spokesperson who says the individual effected an exit from the vehicle is telling us who he is.
How to fix hidden verbs in your draft
- Search for the propping verbs and the noun endings above.
- For each hit, ask who did what.
- Make that person the subject and turn the noun back into the verb.
- Delete the leftover of or by phrases, and read the sentence aloud to check it still means the same thing.
This is a line edit habit rather than a rule, and it pairs well with a search for filter words, which put a similar layer between the reader and the action.
Frequently asked questions
What is a hidden verb?
A hidden verb is an action that has been turned into a noun, with a weak verb such as make, give or conduct left to hold the sentence up. 'She made a decision' hides the verb decide, and 'She decided' says the same thing in fewer words.
Is a hidden verb the same as a nominalisation?
Nearly. A nominalisation is the noun made from a verb or adjective, such as decision from decide. Hidden verb is the name for the whole pattern: that noun plus the weak verb propping it up. Other names for it are smothered verbs, buried verbs and zombie nouns.
What are some examples of hidden verbs?
Make a decision (decide), give consideration to (consider), provide assistance (help), reach an agreement (agree), conduct an investigation (investigate), take a glance (glance) and make an attempt (try).
Are hidden verbs always wrong?
No. The noun is the right choice when the action itself is the topic ('the inspection was a farce'), when you refer back to something already said, or when a character talks that way. In narrative prose they are usually drag, so treat each one as a choice.