Notes about ‘Being’

Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Tayyab in Pakistan about a form of the verb “be” in English.

Question

Dear Teacher,

I am always confused when it comes to the usage of “being.”

Thank you,

Tayyab

Answer

I'm happy to answer this question, Tayyab.

Let's start by considering a basic way we use the verb “be” in English. We commonly use this verb to link, or join, a subject with its description. The description will often be a noun or an adjective. The following two examples show this:

That man is a farmer.

That man is rich.

Expanding on this use of the verb “be,” we can call a description of how a person feels and experiences his or her life as a “state of being.” A state of being can last for a short or a long time. However, a state of being is longer than a momentary feeling. The following examples show this usage:

In retirement, her state of being became more relaxed.

His state of being has not been good in recent months.

We can also use the word “being” to begin a description. This can help us describe something or someone in one sentence instead of two. For example, we could use two sentences to describe a man who does not speak very much with other people:

Mr. Jones was someone who spoke very little. He sat quietly while others did the talking.

But if we use the word “being,” we can express this idea in one sentence, as in the following example:

Being a man of few words, Mr. Jones sat quietly while others did the talking.

Here is another example of changing a description from two sentences to one sentence:

Manut was very tall. That is why he decided to play basketball instead of football.

Being very tall, Manut decided to play basketball instead of football.

We can also use the word “being,” combined with the noun or adjective that follows it, as the subject of a sentence. Consider the following examples:

Being a parent has helped me better understand my own parents.

Being open to criticism will help you improve your work.

In these examples, the phrases “being a parent” and “being open to criticism” are the subjects of the sentences.

Lastly, we can use the word “being” as a noun to describe a highly intelligent form of life. Humans are beings, and somewhere in the universe, other intelligent beings might exist.

For our readers and listeners, what are your questions about American English? We'd like to hear from you. Send us an email at 21voa.com. And please include where you are from in your email, too.

And that's Ask a Teacher.

I'm Andrew Smith.

Andrew Smith wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

verb –n. a word that describes action or existence

adjective –n. a word that gives additional information about or modifies a noun