Is “being” passive voice?
"Being" + a past participle is the progressive passive: "The claim is being processed," "The road was being repaved." "Being" + an adjective is active ("He is being difficult"), and "being" as a noun ("a human being") is not a verb at all.
Progressive passives describe an action in progress whose doer is not named. They are long (three verb words) and worth rewriting when the doer is known: “The claim is being processed” → “We are processing the claim.”
“Being” at the start of a sentence (“Being told no, she left”) is a participle clause, and a passive one when a past participle follows.
Three sentences, checked
Each example below was run through our engine (v1.0.0). Amber marks the passive construction; a dotted underline marks a “be + participle” that is an adjective, not a passive.
Related forms
- Is “was” passive?
- Is “is” passive?
- Is “has been” passive?
- Is “have been” passive?
- Is “had been” passive?
- Is “will be” passive?
- Is “can be” passive?
- Is “could be” passive?
See the full list of passive voice verbs and passive voice in all twelve tenses.
Questions people ask
- Is "being" + -ed always passive?
- Almost always. The exception is "being" + an -ed adjective such as "being tired" or "being interested," which describes a state.