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What is the grammatical reason for the following use of the word being?

  • Thank you for willing to come : (wrong, I know)
  • Thank you for being willing to come : (right)

But what is the grammatical reason for inserting being here?

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alphadev
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1 Answers1

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I think the easiest way of answering this looks through the lens of a 'Thank you for+noun' sentence. Every sentence of this structure needs to have a noun follow the preposition for, which is often a gerund form of a verb ie. "Thank you for running errands." This works fine since running easily becomes a gerund. This is not so for 'willing' which is the present participle of the verb 'to will' and needs to be used as an adjective. One needs to BE 'willing.' Since the present participle acts as an adjective, the adjective 'willing' will always be accompanied by the verb 'be'(am, was, etc. also acceptable.) Unfortunately this is one of those rules that is fairly specific to the word 'willing:' It must be used as an infinitive (willing + to + verb), and will always have the form "be/was/is/am + willing."

I am (1st person singular present of be) willing to look into this more for you.

Thank you for giving me to opportunity to improve my grammar, by being willing to ask this question.

AbsurdEvolution
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    This answer glosses over the original question's point of confusion, which is that the "willing" in "willing to come" is not the present participle of the verb "will", but a separate word "willing" which is an adjective meaning here "inclined or favorably disposed in mind". To be clear, "I am willing to come" is not the present progressive of "I will to come" (which is not grammatical in modern English), but something more like "I am inclined to come" or "I am happy to come". – nohat Jul 17 '14 at 08:55