Learn English – “tube” vs. “tubing”

etymologymorphology

I have always run into word twins like tube vs. tubing.

More pairs: fence vs. fencing, pipe vs. piping, cable vs. cabling, rail vs. railing, etc.

This is an interesting phemonenon. Most of these nouns cannot function as verbs, but adding the ing-form generates a new word with a similar meaning.

Can you please explain the morphology behind this? Does the ing-form bring with it a different connotation? Any nuances between these twins?

Best Answer

From the Wiktionary article on "-ing":

Suffix -ing: Used to form uncountable nouns from various parts of speech denoting materials or systems of objects considered collectively.
Roofing is a material that covers a roof.
Piping is a system of pipes considered collectively.

See the suffix -ing has three actions, according to Wiktionary:

  1. Forming gerunds - from verbs, obviously
  2. Forming the nouns to designate something "collectively", as in your examples
  3. Forming nouns of the action or the procedure of a verb ("the forging of the sword took hours")