Teachers start with be as the helping verb in she is walking. On a real page that is the rare use. In one chapter of a novel the scan finds an -ing word after 6 of 137 forms of be, 4.4%, and a reader finds one more in the rows. Most of the time be is the verb, with a noun phrase, an adjective or a place after it.
Core ideas
Three ideas. The first is the order of the evidence.
After a form of be you can find an -ing form (was going), a participle (was humbled), an adjective (was glad), a noun phrase (is a truth) or a place (is in town). In the first be is a helping verb, and be with an -ing form is the progressive. In the second it is a helping verb when the participle says what was done. In the last three it is the verb.
A passive says what was done to the subject. She was pleased can be about what happened to her or about how she felt. The two read the same on the page. The lab puts every participle in one class, and says so. The class holds 13 forms in the chapter, and adjective words the scan knows hold 19 more.
Counted on the page, the largest group after be is a noun phrase, 37 of 137. The -ing form is the smallest named group. A reader who expects be to open a progressive will get most of the be they meet wrong.
The material
Six rows are followed by an -ing word. Thirty-three are filed as something else, and most of them belong in another group.
Most courses meet be in the progressive. She is walking. They were singing. The rule is simple: be and an -ing form make a continuing action, and the -ing form is the main verb.
Now count. Chapter XXVI has 137 forms of be. The lab reads the word after each one, past not and short adverb words, and sorts it. It finds six followed by an -ing word. That is 4.4%.
37 are followed by a noun phrase: his arrival was no great, her brother is the cause. 26 are followed by a preposition or a place: I am not in love, she was at length. 19 have an adjective the scan knows: I am not afraid of. 13 have a participle. Three put a pronoun next. One is a question turned round, how am I even to know; the other two are as it is, you must, where the scan ran past a dash, and were I distractedly in love, the old form for a case that is not real, which “The -s Belongs to He, She and It” set aside. Thirty-three are filed as something else.
After a noun phrase, an adjective or a place, be is the verb. Its job is to link the subject to what comes after: her brother is the cause. There is no other verb for it to help. And not one of the 137 is followed by a bare verb. I am agree and she is work here put be in front of a verb with no ending, and the chapter never does: after be comes an -ing form, a participle, or no verb at all.
The 13 participle forms are a mix. You are warned against it says what is done to you, and she was satisfied with says how she felt. A passive and an adjective use the same word in the same place, and a scan that reads only the word cannot tell them apart. The lab puts them in one class and says so under the table.
Read the rows filed as something else. You will find I am sure and I am certain more than once, where sure and certain are adjective words the scan does not know. You will find tempted, deceived and resented, participle forms it does not know. You will find as before an adjective: was as regular, be as welcome. A few rows are broken: what was Charlotte's first.
One of those rows is the progressive. In his marriage was now fast approaching the scan steps over now, meets fast, which is on none of its lists, and stops. By hand, then, 7 of the 137 forms of be are followed by an -ing verb, 5.1%, close to the novel's 4.7% and the scan's 4.4%. The page keeps the scan's number and prints the rows, and the rows are where you check it.
Counted once over the whole novel, which no page can carry, and quoted here: 5,858 forms of be. A noun phrase follows 23.5%, a participle 20.8%, a noun or name 14.3%, a preposition 12.6%, an adjective 10.4%, an -ing form 4.7%, and a pronoun 2.4%. For the play the -ing share is 5.6%. In the two modern documents the lab counts 2 of 36 forms followed by an -ing word, which is 5.6%, and 5 followed by a participle. The picture is the same in 1813 and in 2026.
Interactive
Every pronoun, modal, have, be and not in the chapter, and what comes next
| box | pronoun subjects | share |
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Method
Look at the word after it, past any not or adverb.
Then it may be a progressive: were going out, has been acting. Check that the -ing word is a verb and not a noun.
Then be is a helping verb for the passive: was paid, were received. Or it is an adjective that looks like one, and the page cannot tell.
Then be is the verb, and the adjective says what the subject is like: am not afraid.
Then be is the verb again: is the cause, am in love, will be in a.
Five rows from the chapter, one for each job.
Only the last line is a progressive. It is one line in five because the five were chosen to show each job; in the chapter's 137 forms it is 6 times. The six rows with an -ing word after be are not all alike: one of them, this is being serious, has being, a form of be itself, with an adjective after it. The second row is the one the scan cannot settle: warned may be what was done to you or a state you are in.
You should be able to sort the word after be into an -ing form, a participle, an adjective, a noun phrase or a place, say why the scan cannot tell a passive from an adjective, and read the share of -ing forms off a printed chapter.
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