# "Be being" - grammatically correct?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-being-grammatically-correct/611322>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 31, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-being-grammatically-correct/611322 "2012-01-31T18:16:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 6

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-being-grammatically-correct/611322/6 "2012-02-02T21:23:35Z")

</div>

> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> Yeah, it’s not great, but the “being” is a gerund, which is legit.

No, “being” in this case is not a gerund because the word in question isn’t behaving at all like a noun. The phrase suggests that something is not being adhered to _right now_ but this non-adherence is not necessarily a property of the thing. It’s like the difference between “you are a jerk” an “you are being a jerk.” The former is absolute and final, but the latter leaves open the possibility that you could stop being a jerk.

There are definitely clearer ways to express this, but I don’t think it is ungrammatical.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/be-being-grammatically-correct/611322)._