How to Use BEING (verb, gerund, participle, noun)

hi everybody welcome back to right to the top I'm Adam in today's video I'm going to talk to you about one word and one word only it's gonna be a bit of a grammar lesson a bit of a vocabulary lesson but most importantly it's going to be a usage lesson now the word I'm talking about is the word being bei ng and the reason I'm talking about this is because students often ask me how do I use this word it's such a confusing word so the reason that most people find it confusing is because it has multiple uses ok so that's what we're going to look at today how to use being as a verb as a gerund as a participle and as a noun and this is the problem with this word because it has all these functions people get confused when they see this word in a context that might not seem very familiar so I'm going to show you the different functions and I'm going to show you sample sentences so you understand the different context and how to use this word correctly ok so we're gonna start with a verb as you know when you have an ING verb it's generally a continuous tense basically something that is happening over a longer period of time if it is done in the present then it is happening right now it's in the process of happening so we have M being is being are being for the present continuous was it or were being for the past continuous notice that we never say will be being or even will being there is no future continuous for the verb being we just say will be something and that's the future we don't use it in the continuous we also don't use it in the perfect tenses we don't say has been being or has being and we don't say with a modal verb should be being or sure must be being etc so we don't mix being with any other verbs except the basic regular B verbs am is are was were period okay so that's how we use it now the problem with the verb is that it has two different functions the first one is when the being is followed by an adjective or now in which case this is the subject compliment remember that the be verb is a linking verb or a copula verb means it's linking a subject with a predicate there is no action happening but this is where it gets a little bit tricky so first of all whatever you see am being is being was being etc followed by a compliment adjective or noun right away you understand that we're talking about a behavior so although there is no particular action we can point to we can say that the general actions of the person show a certain behavior or a certain attitude now it's very important not to confuse attitude with feeling you can't say somebody is being angry you can just say somebody is angry but somebody is being stubborn stubborn is more of an attitude so the things that they do suggest or the things they say or the things they do suggest that they are very stubborn or they're very annoyed like he's being annoying right he's making me annoyed behavior how they're basically acting towards you so he is being nice now nice is not something that you can actually do you're not doing anything but you're speaking politely if somebody dropped something on the floor you will pick it up for them you will open the door for someone you will help someone that is being nice so all those little actions are categorized generally as being nice okay so it implies behavior remember nice is a compliment it's not an object be verbs don't take object and that's an adjective you can also use it with with a noun but the same way he is being a gentleman so how do you gentlemen act the open a door for a lady or the ladies go first or they give the person an opportunity to speak before them all of these things that gentlemen do means that the person is being a gentleman he is acting like a gentleman so if you're not sure about the verb being use the verb acting instead okay now I'll show you what I mean he was being nice to you but he isn't nice in general so first let's talk about this two things you have to be careful about here one is behavior he was being nice to you he was doing things that make you think he's nice but he isn't nice in general he is not a nice person he was just being nice to you maybe he likes you maybe he wants to get something from you so his behavior his actions towards you might make you think he's nice but generally in other situations or to other people he is not a nice person so make sure you don't confuse the person's behavior to the fact describing the person so when I'm using only the be verb is not this is a fact this is a description when I'm using was or is being I'm talking about behavior and I'm gonna make a separate video about generally the beaver because it's very important to understand how to use it another one he has been nice to me notice that I'm not saying he has been being nice to me when you're talking about perfect tenses you're only just using the adjective with bheem and then you can say he has been acting strange lately if you want to talk about actions use the verb acting okay now very commonly in spoken English you might hear somebody say are you being serious means you're not joking right are you being serious you could say are you serious or are you being serious means is your attitude serious so when I'm using the word serious or stubborn or annoying I'm talking more about attitude than I am about behaviors never with feelings never are you being sad or he is being happy we don't use that he is happy he is sad etc so that's adjective or noun following if you follow the being with a past participle verb or well it's technically a past participle but the third verb right so give gave given given is the past participle if you're using it in that way then you have the B verb is for example is M R being plus the past participle you have a continuous passive action and in which case the action is whatever that third verb is so is being given right given is the main verb is and being are both helping verbs but the whole thing works as a continuous passive verb last week Cheryl was being trained so again it's a longer action it took a few days let's say to use the new software now she is being taught how to program it so it doesn't matter past present etc you're gonna use is being was being plus the past participle again future just drop the being will be taught will be trained next week etc so that's the verb pretty straightforward just make sure you understand the context and what you're trying to express or what you're a person is trying to express to you now gerund and here is where people get a little bit confused I think so first of all what is it gerund a gerund is a verb that is used like a noun now the problem here is that we don't have any actual action what we have is the idea of an action the concept of an action or an activity so it's been nice being with you it is nice being with you now first of all notice that it is nice this is a complete clause being with you is a gerund phrase it's a compliment to nice why has something be nice being with you being is the gerund it's just the idea of togetherness of being together if you just want to be general it's nice to be with you both of these sentences work okay what is the difference it's nice being with you now it's nice to be with you in general that's when you that's what you're gonna use the difference betwee between being or to be both both are correct slightly different connotations being friendly doesn't cost anything so smile right smile it doesn't cost you anything so being friendly means just basically behaving in this way as a general idea not right now not you or anybody else anybody being friendly just the this activity this idea of friendliness doesn't cost anything now the next examples this these are the ones that mostly confuse people remember you can use a possessive adjective with a gerund to talk about general idea of an action or a general behavior or activity that belongs to somebody or that is connected to somebody or something his being nice to you does not necessarily mean that he is a nice person so another way I can say this if I want to write this sentence a different way because he is nice to you or because he is being nice to you both okay does not mean that he's a nice person so his being means the action that is related to him at this particular moment it's being expensive does not mean it is good same idea the fact that expensiveness or expensiveness a I guess is their correct word is associated with this thing does not mean that this thing is good right another way I can write it just because it is expensive does not mean it is good so when I have it's being the idea is because it is does not mean again depending on the context of the sentence so that's the usually the harder ones for people to understand the ones with the possessive adjectives but I'll give you a separate video about that as well now sometimes you want to emphasize a certain idea or certain feeling so the feeling of being certain about the existence of something does not make it true so just because you feel that you are certain doesn't mean it's true another way to say of being certain certainty if you have another noun you can just use them down so the feeling of certainty about the existence of something is the same as being certain now the why would I use being in this case because you feel it as a part of you you feel in in you that certainly is it more like an action it's a it's a state of mind and that's why I would use being but again there's no action here this is still a gerund it's used as an object to the preposition of so make sure you're using it in the correct way here and make sure you're not confusing this with a verb okay and the last one is the same idea try to deliver the gifts without being seen without anybody seeing you or without letting anyone see you okay so this is again being seen this idea of something happening there's no action action this is the idea because you don't want them to see you if they see you then it's an actual action happening right so it's a little bit tricky but remember after a preposition you're generally going to need an object to that preposition in this case you're going to use the gerund being not the verb be okay so that's the gerund now participles participles are a little bit confusing you must first understand how to use adjective clauses and adverb clauses correctly once you know how to use an adjective clause or an adverb clause you can reduce it you can shrink it into a participle phrase so being a devout religious man James does not drink any alcohol so what we have here is a reduced adjective or adverb clause depending on what came before after depending on the purpose of this sentence you can say if you extend it because or as he is a devout religious man James does not drink or James who is a devout irreligious man does not drink the first one because adverb clause reduced the second one James who is adjective clause reduced why you would use one or the other depends what you're trying to say are you explaining to me something about James or are you giving me a reason that he doesn't drink okay depends either way when you have a dependent clause adjective or adverb cause with an independent clause and they share the same subject James and he same subject and you have a be verb you can reduce the be verb to an active participle in which case that's being you can do this with other verbs as well but I want to show you how it's used with being reduced to an active participle with an ING you can't do this with a passive participle you can't say being a devout man and that doesn't work and again same idea being tall Larry often stands out in a crowd Larry who is tall so another thing to keep in mind I forgot to mention before you can reduce these clauses when the conjunction is also the subject of the clause right who is who is the subject in the first one I can reduce the because because it's very clear if the conjunction is very obvious you can take it out as well if you think it's not very obvious leave it okay being at the value religious man very obvious I could take out the because again I'll make a different video about participles they're really tricky a couple more examples there being no alternatives we decided to go with the local agency because there were no I'm taking out there because it's obvious the relationship between the two clauses I must leave there why because there is a different subject than the independent clause there is the subject we is a subject separate subject you must keep both subjects same subjects you can take one out there be no alternatives we'll we decided to go in the next example before being sent each item is checked twice to ensure now here we have the same subject so I took it out but notice I kept the conjunction before because here I don't have an obvious relationship I have to show you the order of events so I must keep before take out the subject the be verb into an active participle being before it is sent each item is checked reduced to a participle phrase so that's participles okay last one nouns now again in most cases I think most people will realize that the beings is being used as a noun especially when it's used as a plural for example human beings are strange creatures we are some scientists claim to have proved that there are no other beings in the universe so a being is basically an existing living thing an animate and animate object a living thing an animal creature an alien as the case may be many people believe in a Supreme Being that controls our world in our lives notice that I have capital S capital B on supreme being this is just another way to say God if you want to not say God the word God a coma is a state of being so it's just a state like this is basically a collocation state of being in which and this whole state of existence in this case being means existence and then I describe what kind of existence that is so there you go very gerund participle noun all of these can be applied to the word being just make sure you understand the function of the word in your sentence what's surrounding it what's before what's after what is trying to do now if you want a little bit more practice I will put a few quiz type questions on my Instagram page you can go there and you know follow me on Instagram you can join follow me on Facebook as well you can also join my facebook group it's a reading and writing lab it's Adams reading and writing lab where you can talk to other English learners other people trying to improve their writing skills and their reading skills and you can communicate and practice your reading and writing there as well and I will also put some of these questions for you there as well so that is all I hope that was a little bit helpful if you have any questions about being please ask me in the youtube comment section or Instagram or Facebook etc if you liked the video don't forget to give me a like subscribe to my channel click the notification icon so you know when new videos come up and I'll see you again soon bye bye

Channel: Write to the Top

Views: 39,431

Keywords: IELTS, TOEFL, English writing, writing skills, language test, English grammar, English vocabulary, high score, how to write an essay, essay writing, English test, word choice, English skills, test preparation, IELTS high score, TOEFL high score, lexical resource, how to write in English, IELTS high band, IELTS writing, TOEFL writing, academic writing, academic vocabulary, IELTS prep, IELTS test, TOEFL test, IELTS success, TOEFL success, English teacher Adam

Id: ylrEK69P1KI

Length: 17min 45sec (1065 seconds)

Published: Wed May 27 2020