🏁 Use been after to have, and being after to be:
We had been there often.
They have been to London recently.
Being is only used as part of a verb after to be, either in the present:
They are being cautious about buying a new house.
I am being generous today.
Or in the past:
He was being too slow getting to the half way line.
They were being careful on this one.
📲 💻You can use this link to a Google Form to check you can use these words in the right way.
and was now having a rest.
🚦Both these words are only used after different verbs, so you just need to learn which pairs go together and you’ll always get them right. For been, this is really easy, because you only ever use it after the verb ‘to have’ (had or have) to talk about something in the past, e.g.
So the quickest way to remember is:
After has/have or had → been
After is/are or was/were → being
You can also use being as a noun, like in human beings, which is sometimes misspelt as human beens!
🎯 💻 Want to try a test?
https://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/confusing-words-being-and-been
🎓Been is what’s called the past participle of the verb to be, which is itself an auxiliary verb. Being is a present participle that joins with the auxiliary verb to be to form a progressive or continuous verb form. It can be used in other ways, like Being very cold isn’t pleasant, but that is even more complicated to explain and a Google search for being + gerund might help you if you’re interested further.