More on being verbs
Some verbs express action, and some simply link the front half of the sentence to the back half. Here are some examples of the second type, the linking verbs:
The house is green.
The snack smelled good.
The hummingbird looked frenetic.
In these sentences the verbs--"is," "smelled," and "looked"--express no action at all; they merely link. Here's what action verbs look like:
The house burned down.
The snack slipped to the floor.
The hummingbird thrust his pointed beak into the bee balm.
In each of these sentences, the verbs--"burned," "slipped," and "thrust"-- show an action performed. In our discussion, I will limit the types of linking verbs to the most common type, the verb "to be."
Approaching the verb "to be," one should exercise some care; no verb is more common. So no writer should go on a scorched-earth campaign against this most common of verbs. The verb "to be" is best replaced only when the sentence has some action to present. For instance, "The house is green" has no action to express, or at least none that the writer has implied. That sentence should probably stay as it is since the sentence's concept was static.
On the other hand, "The following is a demonstration of how verbs work" could be expressed much more forcefully without the "being" verb: "The following demonstrates how verbs work." The first sentence was implying activity all along, even though the writer used the actionless verb "to be." With the "being" verb traded in for the action verb ("demonstrates"), the sentence is more dynamic, the writer seems more confident, and by the way, the sentence is more concise.
Furthermore, the verb "to be" is one of the two normal auxiliary verbs: "to be" and "to have." You may remember that auxiliary verbs, or helping verbs, are those attached to the main verb to suggest a complex tense or voice. For instance in the present tense, one says, "He walks"; but in the present progressive tense, one says, "He is walking." Nothing is wrong with the "is" in that sentence; the sentence does not employ a linking verb or a weak "being" verb. The actual verb is "is walking," both words, and that is a strong, concrete, active-voice verb.
So you're looking for a fairly narrow usage: a "being" verb standing alone as the verb in a sentence implying action. Here are some examples of "being" verbs ripe for repair:
He is in need of our help.
The action is not in compliance with law.
You could be of help to me.
Each of these deserves your editing.
==>Guidelines ==>Verbs
==>'Being' Verbs