was being
OR
were being
are the markers of the affirmative past continuous (progressive). In the following A2 example, the verb phrase is followed by an adjective:
If we add a past participle at the end, we get past continuous affirmative passive. For example:
He was being used.
A search in iWeb corpus for was/were + BEING + past participle:
_vbd being _vvn
B1 vocabulary found in the first 50 most common Ngrams includes: attacked, considered, developed, filmed and interviewed.
USED, HELD, MADE, and TAKEN are the most common past participle verbs.
5 WAS BEING TREATED 2919
Aljazeera.com10 WERE BEING TREATED 1695
11 WAS BEING SAID 1582
12 WERE BEING SOLD 1522
13 WERE BEING TAKEN 1432
14 WAS BEING SOLD 1399
15 WAS BEING ASKED 1392
16 WAS BEING PLAYED 1337
17 WAS BEING DEVELOPED 1329
This new sensor was being developed by a team that I joined.
18 WAS BEING DRIVEN 1299
19 WAS BEING PAID 1287
20 WAS BEING INVESTIGATED 1261
Far from it.
He was being investigated.
21 WAS BEING GIVEN 1199
22 WAS BEING CARRIED 1102
23 WERE BEING BUILT 1066
24 WAS BEING CONSIDERED 1041
25 WAS BEING OFFERED 1040
26 WERE BEING ASKED 1040
27 WAS BEING PREPARED 1009
28 WAS BEING PUT 998
29 WERE BEING SENT 977
30 WAS BEING SENT 974
31 WERE BEING PAID 959
32 WAS BEING TOLD 953
33 WAS BEING INTERVIEWED 894
34 WAS BEING WATCHED 889
35 WERE BEING TOLD 856
36 WAS BEING CALLED 847
37 WAS BEING DISCUSSED 828
38 WAS BEING ATTACKED 811
39 WAS BEING WRITTEN 800
40 WAS BEING RUN 797
41 WERE BEING GIVEN 795
42 WAS BEING PUSHED 789
43 WAS BEING FORCED 779
44 WAS BEING TAUGHT 741
45 WAS BEING KEPT 706
46 WAS BEING FOLLOWED 696
47 WAS BEING FILMED 693
48 WAS BEING PULLED 691
49 WERE BEING FORCED 684
50 WERE BEING PUT 672
51 WAS BEING TESTED 666
52 WAS BEING CHASED 640
53 WAS BEING CONDUCTED 639
54 WAS BEING CHARGED 633
55 WAS BEING RECORDED 632
56 WAS BEING SET 628
57 WAS BEING BULLIED 624
58 WERE BEING DEVELOPED 622
59 WERE BEING OFFERED 622
60 WAS BEING RELEASED 601
61 WAS BEING SHOWN 592
62 WERE BEING KILLED 588
63 WAS BEING PRODUCED 585
64 WAS BEING CREATED 579
65 WERE BEING KEPT 564
66 WAS BEING LED 555
67 WAS BEING PLANNED 552
68 WAS BEING SERVED 534
69 WAS BEING ABUSED 532
70 WAS BEING CONSTRUCTED 531
71 WAS BEING SPENT 529
72 WAS BEING QUESTIONED 525
73 WAS BEING REPLACED 523
74 WAS BEING TRANSPORTED 517
75 WERE BEING PRODUCED 514
76 WAS BEING BROUGHT 513
77 WERE BEING WATCHED 508
78 WAS BEING WORKED 491
79 WERE BEING CONSIDERED 489
80 WERE BEING CARRIED 478
81 WERE BEING TAUGHT 466
82 WERE BEING DRIVEN 464
83 WAS BEING MOVED 456
84 WAS BEING SOUGHT 433
85 WERE BEING ATTACKED 433
86 WAS BEING ARRESTED 427
87 WERE BEING BROUGHT 427
88 WAS BEING PERFORMED 422
89 WERE BEING PUSHED 419
90 WAS BEING PUNISHED 409
91 WERE BEING CREATED 408
92 WAS BEING TRANSFERRED 397
93 WAS BEING PURSUED 396
94 WAS BEING APPLIED 395
95 WERE BEING CHARGED 385
96 WERE BEING INVESTIGATED 385
A search for collocates of ‘was being‘ in the MOVIE corpus:
1 BY 299
2 THOUGHT 154
3 WHILE 59
4 HELD 57
5 CHASED 47
6 WATCHED 44
7 FELT 43
8 KNEW 40
9 USED 37
10 FOLLOWED 36
11 TAKEN 32
12 SARCASTIC 29
13 ATTACKED 28
14 BORN 28
15 BLACKMAILED 25
16 SELFISH 21
17 PAID 21
18 STUPID 21
19 POLITE 20
20 TREATED 20