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As far as I know, when two things happen at the same time, I can combine them with using participles.

Such as :

Kate is in the kitchen and she is making coffee.

to

Kate is in the kitchen making coffee.

Is using "being" okay in reduced "to be" phrases? I mean are those sentences below grammatically okay?

1- I sat there, still waiting, being worried that she would never arrive. (... and I was worried ...)

2- I was preaparing the food , my friends being sick of waiting. (I was preparing the food and my friends were sick of waiting)

3- Being shocked by his death, I passed out. (When I was shocked by his death...)

4- The word “book” has a double meaning , the noun form being “ a set of pages inside a cover”, while the verb form is "to arrange to have a seat etc. at a particular time in the future"

Can I omit the "being" in my examples?

1'- I sat there, still waiting, worried that she would never arrive.

2'- I was preaparing the food , my friends sick of waiting.

3'- Shocked by his death, I passed out

4'- The word “book” has a double meaning , the noun form “ a set of pages inside a cover”.

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  • A similar post for anyone interested: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/209072/…
    – Cardinal
    Jun 8, 2019 at 17:27
  • You can remove being from 1 and 3, but not 2 and 4.
    – windblade
    Jun 8, 2019 at 21:59
  • @windblade Could you describe the reason in detail?
    – Talha Özden
    Jun 8, 2019 at 22:05
  • I think it's that "being" can be omitted from the beginning of a phrase, but not from the middle of a phrase.
    – windblade
    Jun 8, 2019 at 22:18
  • @windblade Hi. You said we can't omit the "being" in 2 and 4 but I see constructions of absoluete phrases and they omit "being". For example : "Six banks were robbed in three weeks, the undermanned police force (being) helpless to intervene."
    – Talha Özden
    Jun 17, 2019 at 11:14

1 Answer 1

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Yes, I would say you can remove being from all four, but some may require an additional verb. Like for the second one, I might say, 'my friends were sick of waiting.' Choosing were as the plural past tense to match was in the first half of your sentence.

Being in my mind, if I use it as a verb at all, it's like referring to the act of /state of being or used as a noun.For example:

a human being or Being constantly late is not a good habit.

I actually can't think of any examples were I would use being except at the beginning of a sentence. In colloquial speech, you might hear someone say, 'I don't know why he's being so crazy' to mean, 'acting so crazy' or 'is so crazy'. But it isn't formally grammatically correct, I don't think.

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  • But what I am trying to do is omit some verbs to produce a compound sentence by using participle clauses. For example: I was preaparing the food + in the meantime my friends were sick of waiting. = I was preaparing the food, my friends (being) sick of waiting. I mean if I use "were" here I don't produce a compound sentence here. This is just the opposite of what I am trying to do.
    – Talha Özden
    Jun 17, 2019 at 11:24
  • Gotcha. You could say, 'Waiting for me to finish cooking, my friends were getting tired of waiting.' That's a participle clause, I think. @TalhaÖzden
    – EmKhay
    Jun 17, 2019 at 11:27
  • Yes this one works. But my question here is about omitting "being" . :) "I was preaparing the food, my friends (being) sick of waiting." Can I omit the "being" ? because I have seen sentences that omit "being" such as : "Six banks were robbed in three weeks, the undermanned police force (being) helpless to intervene."
    – Talha Özden
    Jun 17, 2019 at 11:28
  • I answered that, I thought. You should omit 'being' it sounds weird in all of the sentences, I think. As a native American speaker.
    – EmKhay
    Jun 17, 2019 at 11:30
  • But you said you may require an additional verb instead of "being" ? Can I omit "being" in these examples and leave them as they are?
    – Talha Özden
    Jun 17, 2019 at 11:32

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