 BE, BEING, or BEIN from espressoenglish.net BE is the base form of the verb. Use BE after TO. Here are some verbs in English that are often followed by TO. HOPE I hope to be as wise as my father someday. LEARN She's learning to be less concerned about other people's opinions. NEED You need to be ready to leave by 6.30. PLAN We're planning to be in London from the 18th to the 23rd. PROTEND My kids are pretending to be superheroes. PROMISE I promise to be on time for the meeting. TRY He said he'd try to be more patient. WANT I want to be fluent in English. WOULD LIKE I'd like to be a pilot. It seems like an exciting job. Also, use BE after SHOULD, COULD and WOULD. For example, you should be ashamed. This could be interesting. I would be happy to help. After SHOULD, COULD and WOULD always use the base form of the next verb. BEING is the continuous form of the verb. You can use it after AM is an R in the present continuous and WAS and WERE in the past continuous. We can't access the internet right now because the network is being restarted. We often see this structure is BEING in the passive voice. Someone is restarting the network. The network is BEING restarted. Here's an example in the past continuous. When I said that dress doesn't look good on you, I was just being honest. You can also use BEING after verbs that are followed by the ING form, like avoid, enjoy, can't stand, don't mind, look forward to, practice, spend time, and stop. Here are a couple examples. Stop being lazy and help me wash the dishes. I enjoy BEING in a position of leadership. She can't stand BEING lied to. Always use BEING and NOT BE or BEIN after prepositions. For example, I was in the hospital for a month after BEING in a car accident. That's the problem with BEING late all the time. People stop trusting you. The best part of BEING a teacher is interacting with the students. She got an award for BEING the best salesperson in the company. BEIN is the past participle. Use it after the verbs HAVE and HAS in the present perfect and HAD in the past perfect. For example, I've been busy lately. Have you ever been to London? My car has been stolen. Those three examples are in the present perfect, and here's one in the past perfect. By the time he showed up, we'd been waiting for an hour. You can also use BEIN after COULD HAVE, SHOULD HAVE, and WOULD HAVE. For example, you should have been on time for your job interview. The presentation would have been better if we'd done more preparation. He could have been injured badly when he fell off his motorcycle. If you'd like to clear up your doubts about confusing English words, check out my e-book, 600 Plus Confusing English Words Explained. It has more than 200 pages and over 5 hours of audio to help you master these words.