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I am a little bit confused about this grammar topic. I just want to understand and ensure that I am using this grammar structure correctly.

There are some cases I used to use it.

  1. He is being quite rude to her. (He behaves badly with her)
  2. The task is being performed by the team (The team is performing the task now)
  3. Sorry for being late (Apologizing that I am late)
  4. In each case being reviewed, it is necessary to perform specific actions to find the reason for its failure. (Each case which is reviewed by someone requires specific actions in order to find something)

Am I using the grammar structure correctly ?

Thank you.

P.S Please let me know if I've done any other mistakes in the question.

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  • Yes, they are all correct. Line 4: it is necessary, and then find, the reason for its failure.
    – Chris M
    Feb 10, 2017 at 20:26
  • @ChrisM thanks for reply,4 line is just a random sentence. Appreciate your help. I have just corrected the mistake, does it look better ?
    – bryzzeij
    Feb 10, 2017 at 20:38
  • Being is the present participle of the verb to be. Being is the state of things as they are.
    – WS2
    Feb 10, 2017 at 21:04
  • All sentences should end in period; here only the first one has a period.
    – Ram Pillai
    Feb 6, 2020 at 5:06

2 Answers 2

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The word "being" is serving as what's called a present participle in these examples. It is helping to create a form of the verb called the present continuous tense.

You are probably familiar with a variety of tenses, but just in case you don't remember their names, here are some refresher examples, for the verb "feed". I chose an ordinary transitive verb (one which takes an object, i.e. one in which someone does the verb to something) to show the effect of different tenses more clearly:

Tense Example


Past

(Simple) Perfect    I fed the baby
Pluperfect          I had fed the baby
Imperfect           I was _feeding_ the baby

Present

(Simple) Present    I feed the baby
Present Continuous  I am _feeding_ the baby

Future

Future              I will feed the baby
Future Perfect      I will have fed the baby

Note that 2 of these, the Imperfect and the Present Continuous, use the present participle form of the verb itself, "feeding".

Now, suppose that you are the baby. Instead of the active form of the verb, "to feed", we can switch to the passive form, "to be fed". Then, the sentences from earlier in these two tenses change to:

Imperfect           I was _being_ fed
Present Continuous  I am _being_ fed

So, the word "being" shows up most commonly in these two tenses, in the passive form of the verb.

Note: The verb "to be" is an additional, unique case where the word "being" can appear to form these same tenses, but the verb is intransitive. For example:

Imperfect           I was _being_ careful
Present Continuous  I am _being_ careful

Modern American English relies heavily on present continuous tense verb forms instead of the more mundane present tense. In fact, the simple present tense is only regularly used in one way - to reflect an ongoing, regular activity. A few examples:

"How do you get to work?" "I ride the bus." "What kind of work do you do?" "I feed animals at the zoo."

The normal and more common form of the present tense in AmE is the present continuous:

"I'm watching my weight".
"He's being asked to sign the papers."
"She's getting really upset."

BritE does the same thing, but the simple present shows up a bit more, just as a variation in usage.

Note: There is one rather uncommon usage of the word "being". It sometimes appears to start an adjectival phrase, which is a phrase that describes something. For example:

"The ship's captain, being taller than the rest of the crew, was able to reach the swinging cask."

There is another occasional, but incorrect, usage where the word "being" is used as part of a kind of additional dangling phrase that's trying to do the job of a conjunction:

"I ate the rest of the cake, the reason being that I was depressed."

These are really two separate ideas, and could be correctly framed by inserting the conjunction "because" and dropping the awkward phrase "the reason being that":

"I ate the rest of the cake because I was depressed."

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  • I could have added the Future Continuous ("I will be feeding the baby") and other tenses, but the tenses that were shown adequately make the point.
    – jaxter
    Feb 11, 2017 at 2:35
  • thank you so much for a such comprehensive answer. Appreciate it. I was mostly interested in my fourth example and I think yours sentence "The ship's captain, being taller than the rest of the crew, was able to reach the swinging cask." For me this usage is useful when I want to refer to something that is discussed now. I guess I could probably use just the definite article in order to refer to previously mentioned thing, but such grammar structure makes it clearer. Am I right ?
    – bryzzeij
    Feb 11, 2017 at 20:29
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In each case being reviewed, it necessary to find the main point and than find the reason of failure

This sentence does not have a predicate. It should read:

In each case being reviewed, it is necessary to find the main point and then find the reason of failure

I believe you misspelled "then".
Without the "is" the sentence only has an understood verb. By turning the sentence around a little, it is not hard to see:

To find the main point and then find the reason for failure in each case is necessary.

Without the "is" the thoughts are not complete. It may be you intended to use the "is" and didn't by mistake, in which case the only problem is proof reading. The other three sentences seem OK.

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  • I have just corrected this sentence, does it look better now ?
    – bryzzeij
    Feb 10, 2017 at 20:42
  • yep. I see no problem
    – J. Taylor
    Feb 10, 2017 at 21:00

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