What is the difference between "being" and "having been"?

This is why literacy is important. Being able to read the words helps to understand grammar and pronunciation. In fact, we can observe that dialects partly evolve from illiteracy, although to be clear, languages evolve anyway.

In most countries the lower classes have more severe accents and dialects that deviate more from the standard of the language, because they are going totally by ear and also might be pulling from a first language, moreover if the community is fairly separated from the rest of society the dialect evolves separate from the rest of the society. I only mention all of this, because seeing the words written might be helpful and knowing the equivalents in Spanish.

Having been is a past tense and describes having completed the action. I’m sure @Yeahright will know the exact type of past tense. So, what do I mean by completed the action. Here’s an example: Having been to Chicago, I know I don’t want to live there. Another example: I know to avoid the backroads having been there before. So, It’s something you experienced before and are no longer experiencing it.

Being is happening now or in a continual state. He is being very nice.

It’s understandably difficult.

I am not sure of the correct Spanish to compare it to so I have to leave that up to the fluent speakers here.

Edit: what I said about literacy is not a judgement about people who cannot read, it is simply an explanation that being able to read usually helps to learn a language or to pronounce a word. Take for instance y last name, most people cannot repeat it back to me correctly, but when they see it written and I say it at the same time, almost everyone has a quick click in their brain and never get it wrong again. There are exceptions in English since the spelling of so many words is unusual.

Been- How have you been? estado
Being- Lisa is being bad. – esta
But her problem may be that she isn’t hearing the difference in how it’s said.
I keep trying to study french and it drives me nuts how similar certain sounds are. But every native french speaker I know looks at me like there is something wrong with me because to them they hear the subtle difference.
So I can now understand certain things when said by context clues and I learned some of the correct spelling, but if the sentence doesn’t come with good clues to hint at the proper word or it isn’t written down, then I get lost. And apparently, when I pronounce it they say I’m saying two different sounds the same. But it’s how I hear it.
Also doesn’t help my hearing is getting worse with time.

Have you considered signing into Duolingo? They offer free lessons in English to Spanish and they also offer it in Spanish to English. If you have a computer you can both practice.

Just thinking maybe write the English words phonetically in Spanish. My husband does that. So been would be ben (or that would be the closest I think) and being would be bi-ing.

Having been born.

Being born.

Way different.

@Jleslie. Not a bad idea. Though ben would be correct, using the spanish vowels the ei would be reversed. The letter I in spanish sounds like E and the makes an eh sound. So maybe reversing the letters would be more understandable for her. Bi which will sound like Bee to her and eng would sound like ehng. So to her bieng, might make sense of the difference.

@JLeslie because of my mom’s Spanish accent, she pronounces both “been” and “being” the same you pronounce bean as in beans for dinner or coffee beans.

@Pandora I don’t understand how this would help her make sense of the difference, this way.

@Edna Sorry, understand the difference of the word but to understand how they sound different. If she can say them differently then she may understand how they are different in meaning. If you told me a word that two different words sound identical then I wouldn’t understand how they mean past and present at the same time. Seeing the words and being able to pronounce them differently may stick in her mind better. I’m sure if she’s hearing in her mind bean like the ones you eat, that it doesn’t help her.
But do try the duolingo. It’s free, and very helpful. Having her see the words and practice will help.

It is equivalent to the difference between the present and the past.

@Edna Yes, I understand she has an accent. So does my husband, his siblings, and his parents.

Can she say trash bin. Sin. Tin. The name Lynn. Tell her been is pronounced like those words. She is probably trying to pronounce both E’s.

The Spanish language is great for pronunciation in that how it is written is how you pronounce it. Vowels are very consistent while in English it’s very complicated. Even if she has seen the word she might not be understanding how the vowels are pronounced.

Regarding accents I wanted to add that I hope I’m not coming across as harsh. I love accents and language. Even Americans born and raised in the US have varying accents in English. We pronounce words differently just from one region to another. I’d be willing to bet I sound like a gringa when I speak Spanish.

I find the English mistakes my husband makes endearing, especially when he screws up sayings (dichos).

Wow! Got late to the party, but here are my two cents anyways. I have not read the comments above but will later on.

I will start by saying that it doesn’t seem that big of a deal to me unless she is having problems getting her meaning across, if not, then people would think it is just her accent.

It is not clear to me what her struggle is other than pronunciation. Does she not know when to use one or the other? Does she also struggle with these two in written form?

You started out with:

My mom has asked me quite often: What is the difference between “being” and “having been”?

At least, she does acknowledge that these are two different words in spite of her inability to perceive the difference between the two sounds.

From what you mentioned, in this case, I would not take the grammatical route as such. Instead, let’s take a problem-solving approach and break down the problem in different parts to find realistic solutions. First, let’s identify the issues and then provide a few practical solutions so you can help your mom. This needs to be done in steps so that you can go gradually.

Issues:

1. Phonetics: She cannot perceive the phonetic difference between these two verb forms.
2. Usage: It is not clear to her what situations require using one form or the other.

Possible solutions:

Phonetics:

1. Google being pronunciation and been pronunciation, you will get a speaker icon and a visual of lip movement for each word.

2. Click the speaker and have her listen to the two words a few times.

3. Stress the significance of lip movement and how important it is to mimic that. (Sound differences are the result of lip movement and tongue positioning.)

4. Then, ask her to isolate the sound of the endings only and repeat a few times.

5. Find other words that have the same endings and have her repeat them a few times.

6. Make a few flash cards for her with all these words using the same colors that you had initially assigned for each verb form (see below). Repetition is the key.

Usage:

1. Get two sheets of paper and two different color markers. Write each verb phrase on a separate sheet using a separate color for each: is/are being and has/have been

2. Give her a few examples in Spanish first (that way she will have a more precise point of reference), such as:

• Being: El español está siendo traducido incorrectamente en EE. UU. that is Spanish is being translated incorrectly in the US. (This is something that is happening right now [currently].)

• Been: El español ha sido traducido incorrectamente en EE. UU. desde el principio. that is Spanish has been translated incorrectly in the US from the get-go. (This is something that started out long time ago and it is still happening in the present time.)

3. Explain to her that these two situations refer to the same thing but are taking place in two different points in time.

4. The key element to understand is when these actions are taking place.

Needles to say, you need to understand the difference of the two forms very well (both phonetics and usage) so that you can explain them to her. Arm yourself with a variety of examples where you can discuss the different implications of using one form or the other. The practical approach is better in these cases. Do not overload her with too much grammar detail that won’t help her at this point (she is not a student).

PS: Let me know if you need help understanding the difference and use of these two verb forms (present continuous vs present perfect) because I approached the issue assuming you did understand the difference but did not know how to explain them to your mom.

PS2: After reading the other the replies, I thought that the title/wording of your question suggests that you want to know the difference between these two verb forms, not that you have a problem explain it to your mom, which leads people who want to help into explaining the grammar difference of these two forms as opposed to giving you strategies to help your mom overcome her pronunciation/usage struggles.

I know details were supplied in the body of the questions, but still some people go to the question on top and answer it directly.

One is present tense, the other is past tense.

@Yeahright The way I define the difference between “having been” and “being” is like this: “but you have been doing that for a while (or all this this)” and “you are being (acting) nice right now.” I’ve never heard of the terms present continuous and present perfect in my Elementary School English Classes ever. Based on how I define the difference between “having been” and “being,” I hope this gives you an idea of how low my English grammar literacy is.

@kritiper Nope….it depends.

I might have misunderstood above. I do not pronounce been like bean (beans for dinner). I pronounce been like pin, tin, sin.

So, this is really confusing in English.

Been is pronounced like the word sin, but the words seen and teen are pronounced like the word mean, lean, and bean.

@Edna
Before we deal with the two verb forms in question, here are some considerations about verb tenses/forms:

1. A verb is an action.

2. Verb tenses indicate the time that the action took place (present, past, future).

3. Verb tenses usually have a set of time markers that help reinforce when the action took place (now, yesterday, tomorrow).

4. Some verb tenses don’t make sense on their own, so you have to have two different actions in a compound sentence (two simple sentences together) for them to make sense.

5. There are verb charts where you can see the different tenses in categories (simple, continuous, perfect and compound).

You were probably not taught the names of the verb tenses at school because you learned English as a first language. Also, we discussed yesterday that these days they do not teach grammar at schools as they used to.

When you learn English as a second language (ESL), they use the verb tense names so that students can understand when actions took place and learn how to express what they do at different times.

@Yeahright What is the infinitive of siendo and sido? Is that the same conjugated differently?

@Yeahright…”(or all this time)”... This is a correction to my last comment. I typed “this” twice when I should have typed “time.” Sorry for the Typo. And on top of all the things I said Elementary School taught me, Yes, they did also teach past and present tense too, but beyond that, that was it. Never did they ever teach present continuous, present perfect, simple, continuous, perfect, and compound. Now I have to learn a second language just so I can learn my first language. This is backwards.

@Edna Lol. So much information to take in. Do you and your mom live in the US or in a Spanish speaking country?

@JLeslie My mom and I live in the US.

I only ask because being here in the states, eventually some of the confusion will sort itself out.

I only use my Spanish in bits and pieces so I haven’t improved much in 25 years. I’ve been thinking of taking a class. Spanish is my husband’s first language, but he’s too lazy to speak Spanish with me, and it’s also difficult to switch languages when you’re used to using a particular language with a particular person.

I think it’s great you try to help your mom. My FIL as a child used to get frustrated or embarrassed that his parents didn’t speak Spanish well (in Mexico) and then when my FIL moved to the US and had to struggle with English he understood his own parents much better.

@JLeslie Yes, same verb. Different conjugations.

Ser infinitivo
Siendo gerundio
Sido participio

@Yeahright I just realize now that I don’t remember those, but I must have learned them in class many years ago. That means I am probably using the wrong form of ser, or am replacing it with a different word altogether in a lot of sentences. I don’t even want to write the Spanish translation I might use on this Q, because I think it would just muddy the thread.

@Edna
…I define the difference between “having been” and “being” is like this: “but you have been doing that for a while (or all this this)” and “you are being (acting) nice right now.”

What I get from your examples is that, as I suspected, you still have problems with the structures yourself; therefore, you cannot explain it clearly to your mom.

Let’s look at the two verb forms in question: having been and being.

Now, look at your sentences:

1. but you have been doing that for a while Extract the verb and notice you are not even using the form having been. You are using have been doing. Those are two different verb forms that indicate two different times when the actions took place.

2. you are being (acting) nice right now. This is correct. And the time marker that you used right now reinforces the fact that this is present continuous/progressive which refers to actions in progress.

That leaves us with having been as the main issue here.

1. This is not even a verb tense as such, this is a phrase formed by having (gerund) and been (past participle).

2. This combination is one of those that cannot stand alone and needs a second sentence to make sense: Having been to Paris, I wrote an article on the Eiffel Tower. and Having seen an accident ahead, I stopped my car

3. Having been is used to emphasize that a first action has been completed before the second action begins.

@JLeslie You can always open another Q for that topic if you don’t want to hijack this one.

@Edna
I was rereading my first post and noticed that I didn’t refer to having been either but instead to have been. Maybe because I assumed that the problem was with the pronunciation of being and been (so I left out having).
Also, given how uncommon and rather complex having been is, I couldn’t think that your mom would use it that often.
I know I don’t use it often for sure. I used to say Having said that,… a lot, but now I say That said,… instead.

@Yeahright Yes “having been” bothers her because of the word “been.” She pronounces both “being” and “been” like bean as in beans for dinner or coffee beans AND because of the word “been” she pronounces “being” like bean, BUT she fights to add the g sound at the end of “being,” so she attempts to pronunce “being” like bing as in bing.com but she has a lot of trouble just doing that and she ends up making “being” sound similar to bean most of the time, but she’ll either pronounce “being” as bean or bing depending on how hard she is fighting for the g at the end. And all because bean (been) and bing (being) sounds like the word “bee” at the beginning, how she pronounces these words out loud is how she pronounces it inside her head and in her mind they sound so closely similar they might as well be the same word. This is why she asks me this question often, and all I can answer her is what I told you because I wasn’t taught enough.

@Yeahright now my mom is asking me: aren’t being and been the same verb?

@Yeahright She tells me she does not know which one is right: I have been or I have being?

@Yeahright Now she is asking me if “been” is an auxiliar verb.

@Yeahright She wants to know which one is the auxiliar verb: “been” or “being”?

I have being isn’t used at all. It’s never correct.

@Edna
Well, I gave you a couple of examples in my first reply so that you can explain the difference to her.
Being (pronunciation)

aren’t being and been the same verb? They are different forms of the verb be

Now she is asking me if “been” is an auxiliar verb No, it is not. Look:

be infinitive
being gerund
been past participle

@Edna
She tells me she does not know which one is right: I have been or I have being.

1. Have is an auxiliary verb. It is called like that because it helps to form the present, past and future perfect tenses with verbs in past participle, such as:

2. Present perfect:I have been…

3. Past perfect:I had been…

4. Future perfect:I will have been… (it sounds better with other verbs)

5. Have being: This combination does not exist.

@Edna

Been(pronunciation)

Been not bean (long: 4 min)