Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, and narrow it down to the right choice! It's a pretty short sentence, so this should be a quick one to answer! To start, here is the original question with the major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

(A) excepting for
(B) except in
(C) but except in
(D) but excepting for
(E) with the exception of

Okay, to be honest, you could highlight everything in each option because they're short and all different. However, if you look at the entire sentence, carefully, a major clue should jump out at you:

Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

We have two INDEPENDENT CLAUSES in here with a phrase separating them. Whenever we have two independent clauses in a sentence, what do we need to have to connect them? A conjunction or a semicolon!

Let's take a look at each sentence with the non-underlined parts worked back in. Make sure that there is some way to separate the two independent clauses that is grammatically correct (a conjunction or semicolon):

(A) Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

This is INCORRECT because there is no conjunction to connect the two independent clauses together. It's actually a run-on sentence with a modifier in between to throw you off! A modifier is not good enough to separate two independent clauses - it MUST be a conjunction or semicolon.

(B) Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, except in the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

This is also INCORRECT because it doesn't have a conjunction to connect our two independent clauses! A modifier in between them isn't good enough!

(C) Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, but except in the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

This is CORRECT! It uses the coordinating conjunction "but" to combine the two independent clauses together to create one complete sentence.

(D) Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, but excepting for the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

This is INCORRECT. While it does use the conjunction "but" to combine the two clauses, we have an idiom problem. The phrase "excepting for" is not an acceptable idiom in English. "Except in" or "with the exception of" are the correct forms of this idiom.

(E) Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, with the exception of the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

This is INCORRECT because it doesn't use a conjunction to connect the two independent clauses. It's one long run-on sentence with a modifier in between, which isn't good enough to work.


There you have it - option C is the correct choice! It's the only one that uses a conjunction to connect two independent clauses together AND doesn't have any idiom issues.


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

Hello Paras237,

I will be glad to help you out with one.


When two words having the same meaning is used in a sentence to convey an idea, redundancy error takes place. For example,


1. He annually participates in a marathon every year.

2. Although she is good in English literature, but she could not score well in the exam.

In both the above-mentioned sentence, we spot redundancy error because annually and every year in sentence 1 and although and but in sentence 2 mean the same and present the same idea.


However, in the context of this official sentence, use of but and except together does not lead to redundancy error because both these words have been used to present two different contrasts as follows.

Contrast 1 = Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, but the English language was never really spoken on the island.

Contrast 2 = Except in the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

As you can see, while but presents the contrast with regards to English not being spoken in Mauritius despite it being a British colony for two centuries, use of except tells us that in which areas the language was used.

Remove any of the word from the sentence and you will see that the sentence misses something.

Also, comma + but is required in the sentence to join the two independent clauses -

Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years
the English language was never really spoken on the island.



Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

(A) excepting for Since there is a comma after the first independent clause and it is not underlined, what needs to follow has to be a conjunction. So this option is out.

(B) except in Since there is a comma after the first independent clause and it is not underlined, what needs to follow has to be a conjunction. So this option is out.

(C) but except in The conjunction "but" accurately connects the two independent sentences.

(D) but excepting for "Excepting for" is awkward usage in this sentence.

(E) with the exception of Since there is a comma after the first independent clause and it is not underlined, what needs to follow has to be a conjunction. So this option is out.

There are three ways to connect independent clauses:

Proper punctuation: You can use a full stop (.) Example: Tom sings. Mary dances.
Proper punctuation: You can use a semi colon (;) Example: Tom sings; Mary dances.
Use a comma and a conjunction: You can use a comma and follow it with a conjunction (and, or, but, because, and so on) (.) Example: Tom sings, and Mary dances.

- Nitha

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Grammatical Construction + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• Semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses a comma to join the independent clauses "Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years" and "excepting for the domains...on the island"; please remember, semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses. Further, Option A uses the passive voice construction "excepting in", rendering it awkward and needlessly indirect.

B: This answer choice incorrectly uses a comma to join the independent clauses "Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years" and "except in the domains...on the island"; please remember, semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses.

C: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses the "comma + conjunction ("but" in this sentence,)" construction to join the independent clauses "Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years" and "except in...on the island". Further, Option B is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

D: This answer choice uses the passive voice construction "excepting for", rendering it awkward and needlessly indirect.

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses a comma to join the independent clauses "Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years" and "with the exception of...on the island"; please remember, semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses. Further, Option E uses the passive voice construction "with the exception of", rendering it awkward and needlessly indirect.

Hence, C is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Comma Splices" and "Run-ons" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~6 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Understanding intent of meaning helps solve this question. They are trying to say that English was only spoken in two domains and nowhere else. So they want to CONTRAST this, therefore we need a "but".

That's why C is correct and E is wrong.

two independent sentence has to be connect by comma +fanboys.. Hence A , B , E out.

out of C & D - except in the domain looks good compared to excepting for the domain.

Answer :C

Answer is C
Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years is the independent clause
the English language was never really spoken on the island is the second dependent clause.


Now there are two decision points here to select the correct answer.
1) First, we need a FANBOYS conjunction to connect the first and second clauses
2) Second, as the Sentence tells us about a fact that is unusual and unexpected. Therefore it should must have - a Conjuctions that represents contrast)

Which conjunction is used to show contrast :- "BUT"

ONLY C and D are candidates among the given options

D is out because of the wrong words- the gerund "ing" excepting instead of the correct form except

C is the correct answer

Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

A - excepting for - Run on sentence
B - except in - Run on sentence
C - but except in - Correct - conjunction(FANBOYS) needed to join to two independent clauses
D - but excepting for - excepting for is unidiomatic
E - with the exception of - Run on sentence

Answer C

Hi rishabhmishra ,
The subject and verb in the two independent clauses have been color coded .


Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, but except in the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

Hope this helps!!

thanks bro but after , but dr is no subject and verb if its independent clause dr must be one then it will became clause

Hi rishabhmishra,

before the but:

i) Subject: Mauritius
ii) Verb: was


after the but:

i) Subject: the English language
ii) Verb: was

Also, it may be useful to note that presence/absence of a verb/subject does not differentiate an independent clause from a dependent clause. Both these types of clauses (independent and dependent) have a subject and a verb.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses types of clauses, their application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

A - excepting for ==> usage of "excepting" is incorrect, also, instead of "for" the it should have "in" - Furthermore, this is a run on sentence as it is not connected with the help of a FANBOY connector

B - except in ==> Missing the FANBOY connector, ideally a connector that can describe a contrast between two sentences. "but" will be appropriate usage here.

C - but except in ==> CORRECT - Usage of FANBOY correctly connects two independent clauses, and usage of "in" is also correct.

D - but excepting for ==> usage of "excepting for" is incorrect

E - with the exception of ==>Run on sentence as the sentence is not connected with the help of a FANBOY connector. And usage of "with the exception of" is also incorrect.

Hence, Answer is C

Except can also be used as a conjunction.
It implies but and except are redundant. So why B is incorrect?

Sentence Analysis
The sentence says that Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years. As we read further, we see that there is some exception we’re talking about. The sentence says “excepting for the domains of administration and teaching”. First, “excepting for” is idiomatically incorrect. We don’t use ‘for’ with ‘excepting’. (However, we do use ‘for’ with ‘except’). Second, this exception doesn’t seem to apply to what we have read so far; probably it’ll apply to the latter part of the sentence.

The sentence then says “the English language was never really spoken on the island”. As we read this part, we observe two things:

The exception presented earlier applies to this part of the sentence. The exception means that English was probably spoken in the domains of administration and teaching. Now, having understood the context of this exception, we see that we need ‘in’ as the preposition, not ‘for’, as given in “excepting for”. This part is an independent clause in itself. Thus, we have two independent clauses joined by a comma. We have a punctuation error here.

Option Analysis
(A) Incorrect. For the errors described above.

(B) Incorrect. For the punctuation error: Two independent clauses are joined by a comma.

(C) Correct. The two independent clauses are now correctly joined by comma + but.

(D) Incorrect. As we discussed in the sentence analysis, “excepting for” is incorrect. Besides, we need the preposition “in” in the sentence.

(E) Incorrect. For the below reasons:

Two independent clauses joined by a comma.
“with the exception of” distorts the meaning. Now, it is not clear to which aspect it is presenting an exception.

@egmat and @mikemcgarry
Can you please help me splitting up the sentences into clauses. According to the og solution the two clauses here are
1) Mauritius was a British.......200 years
2) expecting...island
Why cant i split it into two clauses this way:
1)Mauritius was...teaching ( being the first clause)
2)the english....island

In that case you would be creating a run-on sentence, i.e. two independent clauses separated only by a comma (without a conjunction).

Hello anandch1994,

Thank you for the query. I will be glad to help you with this one.

Let's take a good look at the sentence:

Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the domains of administration and teaching,

the English language was never really spoken on the island.


(subjects = blue, verbs = green)

As you can see, the sentence has above-mentioned two clauses. Both the clauses are Independent clauses (ICs) as the phrase excepting for... just acts as a modifier for the second IC. These two ICs are connected by just a comma. This structure is not correct as two ICs need comma + FANBOYS or a semicolon or a dash in between for grammatical connection.

On the basis of this connection in the sentence, we can eliminate Choice A, B, and E.

Now between Choice C and D, C is the correct answer as it uses the correct idiom except in.



Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha