1

As much as I understand "being" stresses the action and not the result. So does that mean that:

  • in sentence 1 the person might not have got the book in his possession

while

  • sentence 2 conveys the end result of having the book?
  1. What book was being given to you?
  2. What book was given to you?

And in these examples:

  1. Were you being told that or did you make that up?
  2. Were you told that or did you make that up?
1
  • 1
    The being + past participle form indicates that the action was underway or that it was habitual or recurrent. were being told thus refers to the act of being told as one that was in progress, or as one that occurred on more than one occasion. Were people telling you that? Did the person who told you this stick by their story--that is, did they tell you and reaffirm it?
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 16, 2017 at 20:09

1 Answer 1

2

Strictly speaking, your statement is true:

As much as I understand "being" stresses the action and not the result.

In both cases (sentences 1 and 2), there is no information whether I accepted the book or not.

The difference is that sentence 1 suggests that the action ("giving") happened at the same time with another event or action (not specified). If we specify an event, we could have:

What book was being given to you [when the alarm went on] ?

or:

What book was being given to you [while everybody was being evacuated] ?

The same comment holds valid for sentences 3 and 4.

Note: In the title you say:

"being" + "past simple"

If we look more carefully, we actually discuss about:

"past continuous" + "passive voice"

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .