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Johner Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Being+adj

Hi,

While we can say "you're being rude" why can't we say "it's being difficult" ?

Thanks...
  

Top answer

johner While we can say "you're being rude" why can't we say "it's being difficult" ? Who said you can't? You can temporarily personify an inanimate thing: I have been trying to get this drawer to open for the last 20 minutes.

— CalifJim

  • johner While we can say "you're being rude" why can't we say "it's being difficult" ?
  • Who said you can't?
  • You can temporarily personify an inanimate thing: I have been trying to get this drawer to open for the last 20 minutes.
  • I can't understand why it's being difficult.
  • to be being is used to indicate the behavior of a person at the moment (not his typical behavior), but sometimes we use it for situations like the one illustrated in the sentence above, in which we make it seem that the drawer has a will of its own and refuses to cooperate with us.
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10 Answers
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johnerWhile we can say "you're being rude" why can't we say "it's being difficult" ?
Who said you can't? You can temporarily personify an inanimate thing:

I have been trying to get this drawer to open for the last 20 minutes. I can't understand why it's being
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CalifJim
johnerWhile we can say "you're being rude" why can't we say "it's being difficult" ?
Who said you can't? You can temporarily personify an inanimate thing:

I have been trying to get this drawer to open for the last 20 minutes. I can't understand why it's being
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AnonymousDoes the pronoun 'it' mean 'persuading' the drawer to open or the action of opening the drawer?
Neither. It means the drawer. The drawer is being difficult! The drawer is acting like a stubborn child. The drawer is deliberately acting against my wishes!

When the subject of "is being" is inanimate, we are merely pretending that it
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Thank you, CJ, for your useful reply.
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Hi CJ,

"English is being difficult" is wrong to say but "The drawer is being difficult" is OK. Because first of all these two "difficult" are different. First one modifies the inanimate objects, the latter is used for people. Did I get it correctly?

And since I'm more careful about English these days, everything you write in your posts are noticed
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johnerEnglish is being difficult
"English" is not an object of any kind, so the "is being" pattern is extremely unlikely to be used. In my opinion it's wrong.

johnerThe drawer is being difficult
"drawer" is an object, so the "is being" pattern can be used, but only metaphorically, as illustrated in previous posts.
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Hi CJ,

As far as I see the verb "open" is both transitive and intransitive which I didn't know. when I look at your examples I see that except the first one (drawer to open), all of them have one thing in common:

the boss to give me a raise. the boss gives


my friends to help me paint my house.
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johnerOn the other hand the drawer doesn't open; we open the drawer.
In English the door opens! And it closes as well. You may not have this structure in your own language, but there is a whole group of verbs with the same property. I illustrate a few of them below. Note that both sentences in each pair are correct.

I [broke / dropped / shattered
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Hi CJ, you've just proved that we don't need passive voice any more Emotion: big smile. Among your examples the only one to make sense is the pair
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johnermaybe English has got so many exceptions and needs regulating a bit
No doubt about that. In the meantime we'll just have to make do with the language we have.

johnerIt looks like my language is too poor compared to English.
Just different. Your language would surprise us English speakers in much the
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