been

verb
UK: /biːn/
US: /bɪn/

  1. Past participle of 'be'. Used to indicate a completed action or state.

    1. I have been to London. [ ] [ ]
    2. She has been working on this project for several months and is nearly done. [ ] [ ]

  2. Used to form the passive voice of verbs, indicating that the subject receives the action.

    1. The window has been broken. [ ] [ ]
    2. The package had been delivered to the wrong address by mistake yesterday. [ ] [ ]

  3. Used with the present perfect continuous tense to indicate an action that started in the past and is still ongoing.

    1. We have been waiting for an hour. [ ] [ ]
    2. They have been renovating their old house since last summer and plan to finish soon. [ ] [ ]

Frequently Asked Questions

The word "been" in English means: Past participle of 'be'. Used to indicate a completed action or state., Used to form the passive voice of verbs, indicating that the subject receives the action., Used with the present perfect continuous tense to indicate an action that started in the past and is still ongoing..

The phonetic transcription of "been" is /biːn/ in British English and /bɪn/ in American English. Click the 🔊 button to hear both pronunciations.

Example usage of "been": "I have been to London.". More examples on the page.