Jan,

The statement isn't far from true.  Etymologically, -tion is a compound
suffix, combining the Latin participial suffix -t and the Latin
nominalizing suffix -ion-.  In English, which suffix a word has is
pretty much of function of that word's etymology, and there is no
difference in meaning between them.

As to whether there are verbs in -ion or -tion, there are.  Three that
come to mind immediately are "fashion", "ration," and "station."  Given
the ease with which English grammar shifts nouns to verbs, giving rise
even to the somewhat overstated maxim "Every noun can be verbed," I
wouldn't be surprised to find a lot more instances.  "Fashion," by the
way, was borrowed from French in the 15th c.  French had inherited it
from Latin "factio," genitive "factionis," and had lost the <i> from
it's spelling before English borrowed the word.  This suggests that by
the time English borrowed the word, French grammar no longer treated it
as containing a suffix.  The <i> in the English form may represent an
analogy to the spelling of other words ending in the same phonetic
syllable.  That letter appears first in the 16th c. and the <-shi->
spelling doesn't appear till the 17th.

Etymology, by the way, is a tricky and precise historical discipline,
and etymology works on specific words rather than on classes of words.
The fact that -t-ion- was a productive derivation in Latin doesn't mean
that it necessarily remains so in the languages that borrow it.
Languages tend to borrow words as whole units without the morphology
they may have in the source language.  So -tion and -ion forms shouldn't
be expected to behave consistently in English.

Herb

I teach middle school.  One of the teachers in my district (not my
building) said that all words that end in -tion are nouns.  I never
heard that before, but I thought of all the words I could that end in
-tion.  I think he might be right.

Then I thought maybe all words that end in just -ion are nouns.  Am I
right?  Maybe this information will help my students, but I don't want
to tell them something wrong.

If all words that end is -ion are nouns, can someone tell me why?  Is
there some history about those words?
Thanks!
Jan

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