It’s another Thursday and as always, it’s a delight to bring you a brief lesson in English. We will discuss the difference between been and being today.

Before we get into the day’s lesson, let us, as always revise the previous lesson where we discussed the use of who and whom appropriately.

Who and whom are relative pronouns that have primarily the same function but the one to use is determined by the part of speech it is playing in the sentence.
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Whom is used when it is the object of the sentence while who is used when it is the subject or connecting word in two clauses. Click HERE for more

Being

Being is the present participle of the verb be and like all ‘ing’ forms, it is used to show that the action is continuous or in progress.
It is as simple as that.
Take the following examples for instance:
– You are being taught an English lesson.
– The NDC claims Ewes are being persecuted but the NPP and the government dispute this.
– The students are being trained for the job market.

In the above examples, we see that none of the actions are complete, some even appear perpetual; that is the proper usage of the ‘ing’ form of be.
Once the action is complete or is a series of like-actions that follow one another, you cannot use being.
It is wrong, for instance to say: Lancelot has being cuckolding his friends for long.

Been

In the above example, the action, cuckolding is continuous but not in the present. It is an action that begins and ends repeatedly and not one taking place at the time of the report.

It is therefore in the not-so-distant past, otherwise called past participle.
The correct form of the ‘be verb’ to use, is therefore, the past participle, been.
The sentence should therefore read:
– Lancelot has been cuckolding his friends for long. Other examples are:
– Mr Adum has been friend-zoned.
– The WASSCE candidates have been tricked.

The confusion of the two words, I believe arise from their similar pronunciation and that they are just different forms of the same root word, BE.

However, confusing them can do you a lot of harm, especially when writing an academic essay. Misusing these two words can make you score zero for mechanical accuracy as one can in no way replace the other.

Summary

Being is the present continuous form of the verb BE and used to show a continuing action while been is the past participle of the same verb and used mostly with have or has to show an action that took place in a not distant past or a repeated set  of actions.

If is there anything I missed or omitted, let me know in the comments section below. If not, any other feedback is welcome.

Source - Oswald Azumah