I'm being serious

Dear Teacher,

              Last week, I watched one movie. There was a sentence, "I am being serious." I'm just wondering why can they use verb to be + being+ adjective. Thank you very much.

np36

Hi! Great question. It's fine to say, "I'm being serious." This is especially common in spoken English.

The speaker here is using the present progressive, or present continuous, tense. This tense is formed with is/are + verb + ing, as in, "I'm trying to call him but he isn't answering." We use this tense to describe on-going actions that are happening now. 

Have a great day! 

Dear Teacher,

         Thank you very much. So is there any difference between "I'm being serious" and "I'm serious"?

         Please have a nice day.

np36

Both "I'm being serious" and "I'm serious" can be used to mean, "I'm not joking around, I really mean it." It's especially common to hear this in conversation. You don't often come across these expressions in written English. 

"I'm serious" can also refer to a person's general personality, not just what they're talking about now. You might say, "I'm serious and hard-working," meaning, I don't fool around a lot; I'm a dedicated, hard worker. In this case, you wouldn't use "I'm being serious."