A noun is generally something you can see, touch, and feel. Examples of nouns are: tree, boy and spoon. A verb is an action word. Examples of verbs are: cook, read and sleep. Verbs change by adding "ing" to help show when an action takes place and in which tense. Example cooking, reading and sleping

For an action like cook-ing read-ing sleep-ing

I think what you are seeing is that some words act as both nouns and verbs, sometimes with slightly different meanings. For example to cook & a cook dom has given you several examples of words that act as nouns and verbs. Putting -ing on the ends of verbs is much easier. . eat --> eating (No noun involved) learn --> leanring (No similar noun involved) There are many words that act as both nouns and verbs answer, paint, fight, work, study :)