This study investigated the redundant occurrences of be in a corpus of Chinese students’ written English, focusing particularly on three aspects of the phenomenon: the characteristic patterns of their overuse of be according to proficiency level, the forms and types of the accompanying main verb, and the association between redundant be and its (non-)finite forms. The findings indicate that the frequency of redundant be errors is closely related to the syntactic properties of the main verb. When the main verb is a transitive or unergative verb, be appears most frequently with the root form of the verb. Redundant be before the root form of a verb is often used as an auxiliary verb in negative, interrogative, passive, or emphatic constructions. When the main verb is an unaccusative verb, redundant be appears more often before the past participle form of the verb. The finite form of redundant be occurs less frequently as the students’ proficiency develops, but the frequency of the nonfinite form does not change significantly. These indicate that Chinese students’ excessive use of be may not improve as a function of proficiency.