BROADCASTS.com

Are you being faithful and persistent in your English-learning journey? Have you been pushing yourself to listen and hear as much spoken English as you possibly can? Learning English is hard enough but mastering it takes an extra effort. The good news is you can do it. Don\u2019t give up!

\xa0

It takes a bit of work to understand tenses in English because English is such a descriptive language. In Gabby\u2019s English tips such as this one, she explains how to have a better understanding of the grammar and usage of all the parts of speech in American English. We have been working hard to provide excellent materials and support to assist you on your quest to learn English.

\xa0

To have a full understanding of English you should read and listen to native English speakers. This will allow you to better grasp sentence structure and the flow of the words. Remember also, the premium Go Natural English course provides many more resources to help you. Get involved in the conversations and practice speaking English as often as you can.

\xa0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqkG9J9Fbg0

\xa0

Episode transcript below:

\xa0

Hey! How\u2019s it going?

Welcome to Go Natural English.

In this English tip I\u2019m going to answer a question from a Go Natural English audience member, Kenza.

Kenza asked, \u201cWhat is the difference between \u201cbeing\u201d and \u201cbeen?\u201d

So, Kenza, that\u2019s a great question.

It\u2019s kind of a grammar and usage question and I\u2019m happy to share my answer with you.

So, I would like to start off by saying that a really great way to start to be an independent learner is to expose yourself to a lot of English and you can start recognizing the differences between things like \u201cbeing\u201d and \u201cbeen.\u201d

Of course, it\u2019s going to help a lot and you\u2019re going to learn faster if you have some direct explanation.

At least, in my opinion, I learn better when I have some direct answer like this English tip video.

And also in the premium Go Natural English course where you get more explanations, you get more answers directly, and you learn from exposure to more English because in the course we have tons of native English conversation for you to listen to and see how we really use vocabulary and grammar in everyday American English conversation.

So, you can find out more about that on my website, gonaturalenglish.com.

So, back to your question, Kenza, about \u201cbeing\u201d and been.\u201d

Now, they\u2019re both a form of the \u201cto be\u201d verb, but they\u2019re used in different tenses.

So, I could use \u201cbeing\u201d with the progressive like \u201cI am being\u201d \u2013 let me change that a little bit \u2013 \u201cHe is being annoying.\u201d

Okay?

\u201cI am being amazing.\u201d

Okay, so, \u201cHe is being annoying.\u201d

Another progressive tense would be \u201cHe has been annoying.\u201d

So, see, with the present perfect progressive we use \u201cbeen\u201d and in the present progressive we use \u201cbeing.\u201d

So, \u201cHe is being annoying \u2013 He has been annoying, but now he\u2019s not annoying.\u201d

So, they\u2019re both forms of \u201cto be\u201d so I would recommend to perhaps review grammar a little bit but don\u2019t focus on your books.

Get out of your books.

Listen to more English, perhaps for identifying how you use \u201cbeing\u201d and \u201cbeen\u201d in different tenses.

It would be helpful to listen to stories or to conversations, and as I mentioned with the Go Natural English premium course, we have a lot of conversations where we talk about the past and experiences, so we use tenses like \u201chas been\u201d or \u201chave been\u201d so you\u2019ll be able to hear a lot of examples.

So, one more time just to recap \u2013 they\u2019re part of the same verb \u201cto be\u201d but we use them with different tenses.

So, again, \u201cI am being a great teacher\u201d, okay? \u2013 the present progressive and in the present perfect progressive, \u201cI have been a great teacher.\u201d

So, we just use them in different tenses.

Alright?