Being vs. Been
- 3 days ago
- 1 min read
"Been" and "being" each have their own partner verbs, and once you know the pairings, it clicks pretty fast.
"Been" goes with have, has, and had:
I have been meaning to write.
She has been working nonstop.
He had been sick all week.
"Being" goes with am, is, are, was, and were:
He is being ridiculous.
They were being careful.
She is being considered for the promotion.
One other place you'll run into "being" is on its own at the start of a phrase, acting like a noun, something like ”Being patient is hard." Here it's not paired with any helper verb — it's just standing in for a noun (same idea as saying "Patience is hard"). Grammatically this is called a gerund, but you don't need to remember that. Just know that "being" can pull double duty, and this is one of those cases.
