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555-605 Level|   Grammatical/Rhetorical Construction|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|                                 
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Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the 04 Jul 2022, 10:59
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I got the correct answer but I would like to know that What is different between EXCEPT IN and EXCEPT FOR ?

I googled but nowhere explains : Except in
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Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the 05 Oct 2022, 03:04
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Dear RonTargetTestPrep and MartyTargetTestPrep,
could you elaborate in detail, why the option D is wrong?
I have doubt that the phrase "except for" is wrong.
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/except+for

Thank you in advance.
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Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the 07 Oct 2022, 10:59
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BLTN
Dear RonTargetTestPrep and MartyTargetTestPrep,
could you elaborate in detail, why the option D is wrong?
I have doubt that the phrase "except for" is wrong.
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/except+for

Thank you in advance.
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The phrase used in (D) is not "except for." It's "excepting for" which is often used to express a meaning somewhat different from that expressed by "except for."

That said, even if we consider "excepting for" basically the equivalent of "except for" in this context, the (D) version is illogical.

Notice that the (D) version communicates the following:

The English language was never spoken except for two domains.

Two domains cannot be exceptions to the idea that English was never spoken. So, that statement is nonsensical.

What makes sense is the following:

The English language was never spoken except IN two domains.

We can see that it could be the case that English was never spoken with the exception that it was spoken "in" two domains.

So, we can see that using "in" rather than "for" results in the (C) version's being correct.
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Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the 23 Apr 2023, 02:46
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"Except for" and "except in" are both phrases that are used to express exclusion or exception in a sentence. However, they are used differently and cannot be used interchangeably.

"Except for" is used to indicate an exclusion or exception from a larger group or list. It is commonly used to introduce a phrase or clause that contrasts with or qualifies the preceding statement. For example:

"I like all kinds of fruits except for bananas."
"We had a great time on our trip except for the last day when it rained."
In both cases, the phrase "except for" introduces an exception to the general statement that precedes it.

On the other hand, "except in" is used to indicate an exception to a particular situation or context. It is commonly used to specify a certain circumstance or location where something does not apply. For example:

"The company is successful in every market except in Japan."
"Everyone was quiet during the movie except in the parts that were funny."
In both cases, the phrase "except in" specifies the context where the exception applies.

In conclusion, "except for" is used to introduce a general exception from a larger group, while "except in" is used to specify an exception to a particular situation or context.
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Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the 20 Jun 2023, 20:38
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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

After reading the complete sentence, it is clear, that the it is generating a contrast, hence we can use 'but', hence A, B & E are out. D is using excepting which is awkward. Hence C
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Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the 27 Jul 2023, 22:23
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(except for) is idiom then why options A and D are wrong?
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Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the 19 Aug 2023, 13:37
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8.toastcrunch
(except for) is idiom then why options A and D are wrong?
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(A) is missing a conjunction, and that makes it a run-on sentence.

As for (D), "excepting for" seems a bit redundant. Why not use "except for" or just "excepting" instead?

That's not a terribly convincing argument against (D), so let's look at "except for" vs "except in":

  • "Tim ate everything on his plate, except for the vegetables."

This one works because the vegetables are a subset of what's on Tim's plate. So Tim ate all of the stuff (everything on his plate) except for some portion or subset of the stuff (the vegetables).

  • "The English language was never really spoken on the island, except for the domains of administration and teaching."

This is basically what we get in choice (D). Notice that the part in bold isn't a subset of something else referenced earlier in the sentence.

  • "The English language was never really spoken on the island, except in the domains of administration and teaching."

This is basically what we get in choice (C), and it works because in the domains {...} further clarifies where the language was and was not spoken. English was spoken in those domains, but not really anywhere else.

In this question, we aren't trying to exclude a specific part of a larger whole. Instead, we're trying to exclude a place (i.e., a domain or sphere of activity). Since we're trying to clarify where the language was and was not spoken, "in" ("except in") is more appropriate than "for" ("except for").

That's admittedly a pretty tricky point. There are much bigger fish to fry on the GMAT, so don't worry too much if this one has you scratching your head!
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Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the 04 Nov 2023, 01:50
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Hello GMATNinja,
I was pondering between Option B and C.
After wasting more than 3 min I decided to go ahead with option B. In the back of my mind I was thinking that "excepting for the domains of administration and teaching" is just a modifier because this information is given in double comma.
I know I'm having some conceptual gap and perhaps that is the reason why I took it as a modifier in the first place.

P.S: after finding out that my answer was wrong I immediately realised that it is not a modifier because this piece of info is not modifying anything.
I'll be extremely thankful to you if you could just light that path where in I can easily see that it's an Independent clause and not modifier.
Thanks.
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Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the 07 Nov 2023, 08:33
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GMACOG
Hello GMATNinja,

I was pondering between Option B and C.

After wasting more than 3 min I decided to go ahead with option B. In the back of my mind I was thinking that "excepting for the domains of administration and teaching" is just a modifier because this information is given in double comma.

I know I'm having some conceptual gap and perhaps that is the reason why I took it as a modifier in the first place.

P.S: after finding out that my answer was wrong I immediately realised that it is not a modifier because this piece of info is not modifying anything.

I'll be extremely thankful to you if you could just light that path where in I can easily see that it's an Independent clause and not modifier.

Thanks.
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First, the GMAT is pretty lenient when it comes to comma usage, so you don't want to rely on those to determine sentence structure.

In this sentence, we have two independent clauses in the non-underlined part: "Mauritius was a British colony..." and "the English language was never really spoken". Each of those pieces could stand alone as a complete sentence, and that's why we need a conjunction ("but") to connect them.

The "except" part is indeed a modifier -- it describes (or qualifies or restricts) the second independent clause ("the English language was never really spoken on the island EXCEPT in those domains...").

To help see the core sentence structure, try stripping out that modifier. If we remove the "except" part in (C), we'd still have a grammatically sound sentence: "Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, but {...} the English language was never really spoken on the island."

But if we strip out the "except" part in (B), the sentence doesn't work: "Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, the English language was never really spoken on the island." Without the conjunction, this is a run-on sentence.

I hope that helps!
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