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Can I omit "being" in such cases. (preposition + being + adjective)

For example:

1- Despite (being) poor, he was happy.

2- He was very fast in spite of (being) terribly overweight.

3- The conclusions were far from (being) accurate.

4- Someone mentioned her as (being) vulnerable.

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One and two you cannot remove it but for three and four you can. This is because the word "being" before another word means that the word (in #1 this word would be "poor") describes the person ("he" in #1). You can reword it to have the same meaning in these examples:

Number 1 means: he is poor but he is also happy.
Number 2 means: he is fast but he is also terribly overweight.

However, #'s 3 & 4, you can remove being because "from" in #3 and "as" in #4 already link the adjectives ("accurate" in #3 and "vulnerable" in #4) to the subject ("the conclusions" in #3 and "her" in #4).

These ones, you cannot reword it into the format as before because there is only one adjective in each sentence.

Hope this helps.

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  • Thank you. I need to ask you one more thing. It may sound awkward :). Should I use "being" in such situations (preposition + being + preposition) For example: He fall over in spite of (being) on his feet. (I don't know if the example is good enough to explain the issue.)
    – Talha Özden
    Jun 21, 2019 at 18:32

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