Using verb forms ‘BE’ & ‘BEING’ to describe someone’s Behavior & Personality

This English Grammar lesson will teach you how to talk about someone’s behaviour and personality. You would learn to use the tenses ‘be’ and ‘being’ to talk about someone’s personality and behaviour.

Using the forms of verb ‘Be’ & ‘Being’.

The forms of the verb ‘To Be’ are ‘is’, ‘am’ and ‘are’ in the present tense.

Examples

• The boy is playful.
• Jason is quiet.
• Mike is polite.

In the above 3 sentences, we have used ‘is’, the form of the verb ‘to be’ and we are talking about the personalities of these people. We are describing how they normally are – playful, quiet and polite.

On the other hand, have a look at the following sentences

• The boy is being playful.
• Jason is being quiet.
• Mike is being polite.

Here by using the word ‘being’, we are referring to the behaviour of these people that is a one off case, displayed at the particular time. It is not their normal personality type. In this way, we can use ‘be’ and ‘being’ to talk about personality and behaviour of different people.

Some more examples –

• Elaine is being thoughtful (behaviour)
• Taylor is being creative. (Behaviour)
• Ryan is cranky. (Personality)

We hope that this English Grammar lesson was easy to understand. Please practise and implement this learning in your English speaking.