[Grammar] My hobby is reading or a reading

[danghuynh88]

Hello teachers.

I have a silly question over a simple sentence that I have been using for years. It suddenly dawned on me when my brother asked me why there are no articles followed the noun reading is this sentence below. Is reading in this sentence a noun or an adjective?

"My hobby is reading".

Could you please help me to explain this?

Thank you.

 

[emsr2d2]

It's a noun in that sentence, but we don't use an article before it because it's used as an uncountable noun.

My hobby is reading.
His hobby is football.
Her hobbies include painting and knitting.

 

[jutfrank]

The noun phrase reading refers to a general activity, so no article is necessary.

He loves reading. [reading in general]
He performed a great reading of the poem. [a specific instance of reading]