painting, building, ...

[stefan_kar]

'Painting' and 'building' can mean both an activity and the end-product of the activity.

Can you name other words like these?

[bhaisahab]

Originally Posted by stefan_kar

'Painting' and 'building' can mean both an activity and the end-product of the activity.

Can you name other words like these?

Shopping.

[stefan_kar]

Painting is one of the visual arts. He was painting all day yesterday. This is a beautiful painting by da Vinci.

Building is an engineering discipline. The workers are building a house. That is a very tall building.

Shopping?

[bhaisahab]

Shopping is an activity, you go to the shops and buy things, shopping.
You come home with the results of your shopping, the shopping.

[stefan_kar]

You come home with the results of your shopping, the shopping.

Aah, ok. Didn't know that.

[jackolantern]

Originally Posted by bhaisahab

Shopping is an activity, you go to the shops and buy things, shopping.
You come home with the results of your shopping, the shopping.

Is this a British usage? It is not used that way in American-English.

I can think of a few more, I believe.

"Trimming" (although the noun has to be plural as far as I can tell)

"I am trimming the plants" - "Let me throw away these trimmings."

"Cutting" (same as the above)

"Drawing"

"I need total silence while I am drawing" - "What do you think of my drawing?"

"Writing"

"I have trouble writing if I haven't had enough sleep" - "Can you please grade my writing?"

That is all that immediately comes to mind, but I believe there are many more.

[bhaisahab]

[quote=jackolantern;488727]Is this a British usage? It is not used that way in American-English.

What do you call the shopping in the US?

[jackolantern]

From the way you used it, I am inferring that you meant basically "the things I bought". We don't really have a specific word for it. "My bags", "the things I bought", maybe? I just woke up, so maybe I am not thinking clearly enough to remember what we normally call it. But I have never heard or seen anyone over here refer to what they got as "the shopping"

[Tdol]

Originally Posted by jackolantern

But I have never heard or seen anyone over here refer to what they got as "the shopping"

I had no idea it was a regional term.


How about cutting- newspaper cutting, railway cutting, etc?

[Searching for language]

I've never heard of shoping being used that way either.

If I have been shopping, I would bring home the groceries. Or, my bargains, or my stash if I bought a lot of things.

I am not a teacher.