Experts’ Topic of the Week, 6/4/17: "Being" is not the enemy

Verbal Experts’ Topic of the Week, June 4-10, 2017

“Being” is not the enemy

If you’re a regular participant in our (discontinued!) Wednesday verbal chats or our live YouTube sessions, you might already know that we’re not afraid to contradict some of the “conventional wisdom” in the GMAT world. You should memorize idioms? Not necessarily. You should always use GMAT materials to study for the GMAT exam? Maybe not. You should learn every piece of grammar terminology possible? Probably not.

Here’s another thing we frequently hear from our GMAT students: “being” is always wrong. And you probably know what we’re going to say about that: not so fast.

When it comes down to it, “being” really isn’t all that different from any other “-ing” word. Just like any other “-ing” word on the GMAT, “being” could, in theory, be used as either a verb, a noun, or a modifier. It’s just that there are a couple of twists that make it a little bit different.

So what should you do whenever you see “being” on the GMAT? Well, it depends on how, exactly, “being” is used. (And if you haven’t already, please make sure that you’ve read our guide to “-ing” words before you continue with this post. )

Three potential uses of “being”

1) “Being” as a verb (progressive tense)

In our earlier post on “-ing” words, we mentioned that it’s possible for an "–ing" word to be a verb, as long as it’s preceded by some form of “to be.” Here are a couple of examples:

• Domenico is dreaming of olive groves right now.
• Souvik was admiring his GMAT score report when he realized that he hadn’t slept properly in nearly four years.

And there’s no reason why “being” couldn’t be used as a verb also, as long as it’s also preceded by some form of “to be”:

• Charles is being cruel to his GMAT students today.
• Mike was being nice when he said that your hair looked good this morning.

So if “being” is preceded by some form of “to be”, it’s just a verb. You don’t see this form very often on the GMAT (though an official GMAT example can be found here), but there’s no reason why it’s wrong.

On to possibility #2:

2) “Being” as a noun (gerund)

As we discussed in our previous post, “-ing” words can also be used as nouns (also known as gerunds if you like grammar jargon). A couple of examples:

• Eating is Charles’s only real skill.
• Amy's favorite activities include writing and cleaning her cat’s litter box.

In general, "-ing" nouns are easy to spot on the GMAT: they’re clearly either the subject or an object of the sentence. And again, there’s no reason why “being” can’t also be used as a noun on the GMAT:

• Being a GMAT tutor makes Mike happy.
• Charles’s favorite activities include eating and being lazy.

So far, “being” is just like any other “-ing” word, right? “Being” can function just fine as a verb or a noun. But as you hopefully already know, “-ing” words are most frequently used as modifiers on the GMAT… and that’s where we run into trouble.

3) “Being” as a modifier

This is where things get murky. You'll love this. Or not.

On the GMAT, “-ing” words are most often used as modifiers. If you like grammar jargon, feel free to call them participles. A few examples:

• Dancing happily through the streets of Mumbai, Souvik clutched his GMAT score report with unbridled joy.
• Gracefully riding an enormous wave off the coast of Chile, Mike felt like a world champion surfer.

Those are fine, right?

And here’s the only real difference between “being” and any other “-ing” word: “being” simply won’t work as a modifier in most cases. Here are some sentences that would most likely be wrong on the GMAT:

• Being born in Italy, Domenico has a deep understanding of outstanding cuisine.
• Being one of the world’s greatest jazz composers, Thelonious Monk is beloved by millions of music lovers worldwide.

It's really, really hard to justify the use of "being" in this type of structure on the GMAT. In both of these cases, why would you use "being"? We could just say "Born in Italy, Domenico..." or "One of the world's greatest jazz composers, Thelonious Monk..." -- and those would be just fine. So at best, "being" is redundant and useless here, and it's really, really hard to find correct answers that use "being" in this way.

So when you see this type of construction -- "being" operating as a modifier, often right at the beginning of a sentence -- you should be deeply, deeply suspicious of it. Official examples of this can be found here, here, and here.

OK, so you're saying that "being" is fine as a verb or noun, but NEVER as a modifier... right?

Not exactly. It's definitely possible for "being" to be a simple adjective. For example:

• The man being mean to his GMAT student will be in a much better mood after he eats his eighth burrito of the day.

The phrase beginning with "being" just modifies "the man." No problem there.

Here, have another:

• The carnitas burrito being eaten by the GMAT tutor has only 1700 calories.

No problem, right? Once again, the phrase beginning with "being" just modifies the burrito.

So what's going on here? As always, it's a little bit complicated -- and like almost everything on the GMAT, there really is no absolute RULE that governs this.

Can you use "being" as a modifier? Sure. But whenever you see "being" used as a modifier, you'll want to ask yourself: does one of the other answer choices more clearly and logically express the same thing, without using "being" as a modifier? In most -- but certainly not all -- cases, the answer will be "yes."

So “being” isn’t always wrong!

Bottom line: when you see “being” in a sentence, don’t automatically assume that it’s wrong. If “being” is used as a verb (preceded by some form of “to be”) or a noun, it could very well be acceptable. But if “being” is used as a modifier, it's best approached with suspicion. And if you're not sure that it's wrong, try finding other decision points.

Want more?

• Here’s a Question of the Day thread that features an interesting use of “being.”
• Another official GMAT question with a different use of “being.” (Thank you to hazelnut for bringing this one to our attention!)
• An incorrect use of "being" on an official question... and another and another.
• More GMAT verbal YouTube videos than any sane person should ever watch.