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What is the difference between these two sentences?

  • "After being broken up with my boyfriend"
  • "After broken up with my boyfriend"

Why we use "being" in the first sentence? I saw it on Gossip Girl Season 1 Episode 8 at 02:06 she said "after being broken.."

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    Both of them are wrong. It should be: "After having broken up with my boyfriend." – Peter Shor Oct 22 '18 at 11:04
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    I would hesitate to give an opinion, because I have not come across either form. What I usually see is: 'After breaking up with...' and 'After I broke up with...'. What are the sources of your examples? – Trevor Christopher Butcher Oct 22 '18 at 11:06
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    I'm not quite sure what the two phrases mean (neither of them is a sentence) because they are not normal English. I think you are asking for the difference between "...after having been broken up with by my boyfriend..." and "...after breaking up with my boyfriend...", but it's not really clear. – BoldBen Oct 22 '18 at 11:11
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    The first sentence can be amended to "After being broken up with BY my boyfriend" to mean that he broke up with you, if that is what is meant. – Freddie R Oct 22 '18 at 12:17
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    Nothing. Both wrong. "After breaking up with my boyfriend..." (if you left him), or "After my boyfriend broke up with me..." (if he left you). – Dan Oct 22 '18 at 13:00
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Neither of

  • "After being broken up with my boyfriend"
  • "After broken up with my boyfriend"

is correct English. "To break up with someone" is to end a romantic and/or sexual relationship. (More rarely it can mean to end a non-romantic friendship.) One does not say "being broken up with" but rather "having broken up with" or "I broke up with" to indicate that this happened in the past. "break up with" is a verb phrase in this usage. It would not be used with "being" in any tense. For a construction with "being" one would use an -ed form, such as "being separated from"

Without context I cannot be sure, but I suspect the original was simply an informal, incorrect usage. It is not a common enough usage to become correct by virtue of usage.

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