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I am aware of the general usage of "being", which suggests a temporary state, such as "He is being angry".

However, I am a little bit confused in the following specific context.

An English teacher uses "being" in her classroom in this way.

"simple past" is to mention a past event when we are being specific about when it happened

"present perfect" is to mention a past event while we are being unspecific about the moment it happened.

Why did she use "being" in that specific context? Is it because she was teaching grammar?

Could someone please give a hint? Thanks in advance.

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In this case, "being," suggests a temporary state. "We are being specific," would mean that, right now, we are specific. Just saying, "we are specific," would suggest that you are always specific.

We do use that phrasing often in English. We might say that someone is, "being angry," to suggest that he will not be angry for long. "He is being stupid," or, "he is being yelled at," or, "he is being difficult," are all English phrases you might hear.

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  • Thank you so much. I am aware of the general usage of "being", would you please explain why did the teach use "being" in that specific context? Is it because she was talking about the use of those two tenses?
    – WXJ96163
    Commented Apr 9, 2020 at 23:18

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