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Given:

  1. You are being gorgeous.
    This is wrong. Even if we think she's only beautiful now, it's still wrong.

  2. You are being a Grandma.
    It is correct if someone currently behaves like a grandma, like they might be slow or grumpy or caring.

So could we then say (3) below?

  1. She is being a gorgeous woman.
    Meaning that currently she is behaving like a pretty woman.

I am asking because (3) is really similar to (1), but might it still work?

  1. He is being old.
    Wrong: just a state.

  2. He is being an old man.
    Is this correct when for example it means that he doesn't want to go out or something similar?

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  • How, exactly, does someone behave like a pretty woman? I'm sure that there are many people who would like to know that.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Nov 14 at 9:23
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    You might say this, but language learning is focused on common situations not weird situations where words have unusual meanings. If you're already an expert English speaker, then by all means learn all the weird corner cases. If your purpose is simply to twist rules and confuse language learners, then don't.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Nov 14 at 12:00

2 Answers 2

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(3) She is being a gorgeous woman

and

(1) You are being gorgeous

are not valid; gorgeous is stative.

Stative and Dynamic Adjectives STATIVE adjectives denote a state or condition, which may generally be considered permanent, such as big, red, small ... they cannot normally be used in progressive constructions:

*He is being big/red/small.

stative adjectives

Behaving like a pretty woman seems strange. Other adjectives like rich could work.

For the grandma example, I'd probably say

You're like a grandma.

Edit

As commented, we can use 'being + a noun' to describe temporary states that resemble permanent ones: an annoying child was 'being a brat'; an excessively egotistical person was 'being a primadonna'.

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  • 2
    People might say that an annoying child was 'being a brat', or that an excessively egotistical person was 'being a primadonna', or that (sexist, I know) a person who was grumbling a lot was 'being an old woman'. We can use 'being' about temporary states that resemble, or remind us of, permanent ones.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Nov 14 at 9:22
  • Thank you, @Michael Harvey. I have incorporated your comments.
    – Seowjooheng Singapore
    Commented Nov 14 at 10:16
  • In fact, behaving like... statements are very common. You are, he was, she is (etc) behaving like a fool/an idiot/a madman/a saint/a martyr/a statesman/a Nazi.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Nov 14 at 10:36
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    But when being is a gerund, statives are perfectly fine. Thus, Being gorgeous [or even a gorgeous woman] has its drawbacks. And even for the participle being, statives are sometimes fine: Being gorgeous, she always has men staring at her. In that example, being means roughly “because she is.”
    – Paul Tanenbaum
    Commented Nov 14 at 11:02
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    Most statives can be used with "being" in particular ways; but you have to teach language learners what is usually done, rather than teach every exception. (e.g. "gorgeous" can colloquially mean something similar to "nice, kind", so you might hear "you're being gorgeous" in that sense).
    – Stuart F
    Commented Nov 14 at 11:59
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It would be a kind of wordplay to say "You are being gorgeous", since "being" in this usage means "behaving like". It would mean something like "you are behaving as a (stereotypical) gorgeous person behaves".

As such, it falls outside the normal rules of usage, since the abuse or misuse is an element of the play.

People do say things like "He is just being old" all the time.

Sure, dad complains a lot. He is just being old.

To paraphrase:

Sure, dad complains a lot. That's what old people do.

Using the adjective in that manner instantiates a stereotype on-the-fly. If it is a shared stereotype, people will understand it. But if it's idiosyncratic on the part of the speaker, they might not get the gist of the remark.

He is just being bald.

She is just being freckly.

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