Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Examples:
Being as a Noun
The word being can also be a noun.
Examples:
A human being
A strange being stepped out of the space ship.
Being as a Gerund
The word being can also be a gerund (which is a type of noun).
Examples:
Select the correct version:
1
You have been / being a very naughty boy.
2
The giant panda has been / being making headlines since he was born.
3
Has this pasta been / being re-heated?
4
The court ruled that the teacher was been / being vindictive.
5
Your mum's paintings are been / being sold next week.
THEY'RE PARTICIPLES
Being is the present participle of the verb to be. (For comparison, cooking is the present
participle of the verb to cook.)
Been is the past participle of the verb to be. (For comparison, cooked is the past participle of
the verb to cook.)
Usually participles can be used as adjectives before nouns, but being and been can't.
Past participles (e.g., deleted, broken) and present participle (e.g., cooking, running) can be
used like adjectives.
Broken link.
Deleted file.
Cooking sauce.
Running shoes.
However, even although been and being are participles, they are not used as adjectives before
nouns.
The been car. (What does this mean? The car that used to be a car? This is nonsense.)
The being tree. (The tree that is a tree? This is nonsense.)
Been is always used in conjunction with the verb to have, which is its auxiliary verb. The
auxiliary verb for being, on the other hand, is the verb to be(e.g., is, are, was).
He is being stupid.
He is been stupid.
Being such a lazy oaf, Tony often drives to the nearby shops.