

How to Use Beingīeing is the present participle of be, which means that we use it in a continuous tense. What time is it? It should be almost 11:00. You should be Mary Poppins for Halloween. We use be with should when we want to make a suggestion, when we want to make a guess, or talk about something someone needs to do: I thought she would be angry but she just laughed. I would be really surprised if they broke up. We can use be with would be to talk about an imagined situation that’s not likely to happen: We sometimes use be with must or have to when we want to say that something is probably true: She will be really annoyed when she sees us. So, we can use be with will to talk about the future: Let’s take a look at a few common modal verbs we can use with be. So, when we use be with modal verbs like can, could, will, would, must, or should to name a few, we don’t have to change it. In the present tense, we always use modal verbs with a base verb, which is the form that the verb takes before we change it. We use modal verbs to talk about things like possibility, ability, obligation, or to make a request or a suggestion. When we use be in commands, though, we don’t have to change the form: We usually use commands when we’re telling someone to do something or when we’re making a strong suggestion to someone that we’re familiar with. Read more: Your Ultimate Guide to the Passive Voice in English Be in Commands He has not been invited to this gathering. Renovations are being done at the moment. We can use the passive voice to talk about rules or policies: when we don’t know the subject, when the subject is obvious, or when we don’t want to focus on the subject. Read more: How to Use the Future Continuous in English Different Forms of Be in the Passive Voice She will be meeting us at the train station. She has been thinking about moving lately. They have been practicing the piano at home. Present perfect continuous: has/have + been + -ing Here are the different continuous structures: Here, the verb form changes depending on the tense.

We can use be in the continuous tense to talk about what’s happening right now, or at a specific moment in the past of the future. Different Forms of Be in Continuous Tenses So, we can change be to is, are, was, were, been, or being depending on how we use it.Īnd, when we use it in different tenses, we usually use it as a linking verb, particularly in continuous tenses or in the passive voice.

It’s an irregular verb, and we have to change the form of the verb depending on the tense. The infinitive to be means to exist or to take place. Of course, we know that’s not enough, so we’re going to get into all the ways we use be, being, and been and their major differences: Advertisementsīe, being, or been: The major differences and common mistakes īeen in the perfect tenses and also with modals.We use:īeing in continuous tenses, and as gerunds at the beginning of sentences or after certain verbs. The biggest difference between be, being, and been is the way in which they’re used. They also sound similar, so sometimes it’s hard to hear the difference between be, being, and been. Advertisementsīecause we use these forms of the verb to be so often, it can be easy to use the wrong one. The difference between be, being, and been can be confusing to a lot of English learners.īe, being and been are just different forms of the verb to be: Be is the infinitive, being can be the present participle or the gerund form, and been is the past participle.
