'Except' or 'Except for'?

LI CHIU-MING and HSI CHING-HUA

SIMPLEAS 'EXCEPT' and 'except for' may seem when used as preposi-
tions, they can be very troublesome when followed by a noun, pronoun,

Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Dalhousie University on November 12, 2014

or noun phrase. Students of English sometimes do not k n ~ wwhich to
choose. Take the following sentences, for instance:
1. Everyone was ready except John.
2. The picture is perfect except for one spot.
3. Except for him, there was not one student who could be called really bright.
The three sentences are undoubtedly correct, but can we use 'except
for' in l ? And 'except' in 2 and 3? Questions of this kind are not only
interesting but provocative. To try to supply satisfactory answers we
have made a careful and extensive investigation into as many relevant
cases as possible and the present article embodies the result of the
months of labour we have expended on this research.
A. S. Hornby states in his The Advanced Learner's Dictionary Of
Current English that 'except for' is used 'when what is excluded is
different from what is included'. For instance:
A. 1. Your essay is good except for the spelling.
Cf. 2. All the compositions are good except John's.
Needless to say, this is correct as a general rule and serves as a good
guide in many cases. However, we wonder to what extent that rule
holds true for the following statements:
B. 1. Except for this, everything is in order. (L. G. Alexander, Practice and
Progress, 1973, p. 40)
2. Everyone was tired except for John. (Longman Dictionary of Con-
temporary English, 1978)
It may be interesting to note that F. T. Wood, in his Current English
Usage, gives another yardstick, which stipulates that 'except' excludes a
particular one, or particular ones, from a group or a more general
category, and 'except for' is used to 'modify a whole statement by
making a reservation'. For example:
C. 1. We all went except Tom.
Cf. 2. The wall is bare except for a few posters.
This rule is, by and large, an easier and more exact one and applic-
able to most cases, if not all. But there are still instances where it does
not suffice. Let us examine these statements:
D. 1. She solved all the maths problems except the last one.
2. She solved all the maths problems except for the last one.
 'Except' or 'Exceptfor'? 26 1

3. Exceptfor his sister, they are all going to London now.

4. They are all going to London now except his sister.

As far as we can tell, D l and D2 mean the same, and so do D3 and

D4. Here neither of the above rules is adequately helpful. And that is
why we decided to investigate and have come up with the following:
I. 'Except for' is, historically, the elliptical expression of 'Except (it
were) for', which means 'if it were not for', while 'except' as a preposi-
tion comes from the verb 'except', which originally means 'take out'.
But in contemporary English, we find that both 'except' and 'except for'

Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Dalhousie University on November 12, 2014

may be used to mean 'with the exception o f . In other words, 'except
for' is now a substitute for 'except' in many cases, and therefore they
are sometimes interchangeable. Look at the following pairs of
sentences:
E. 1. He answered all the questions except for the last one. (Longman Dictionary
Of Contemporary English) = He answered all the questions except the last one.
(Ditto)
2. Except for my mother, we are all ready to go now. (L. A. Hill,Prepositions
And Adverbial Particles, OUP 1968) = We are all ready to go now except my
mother.
3. Except for John, the whole class passed the test. (Adam Makkai, A
Dictionary ofAmerican Idioms, Baron's Educational Series Inc., 1975) = The
whole class passed the test except John.

And similar examples from contemporary writings, especially

American writings published in the 70's, are not uncommon. For
instance:
F. 1. He was almost twenty-three and had no steady girls, except for Marie.
(James Alan Mcpherson, 'Of Cabbages And Kings', Modern Age Literature,
Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1976, p. 554) (except for =except)
2. Exceptfor a purse containing sixty dollars, nothing was taken. (Fred Kwesi
Hayford, Inside America) (= Nothing was taken except a purse containing
sixty dollars.)
3. No one lives at Taghaza exceptfor the slaves of the Massufa tribe, who dig
for the salt. (H. J. Wood, Exploration And Discovery) (exceptfor = except)
4 . Except for my family, there was nothing in the Pound to keep me there.
(Francis Gary Powers, Operation Overflight) (= There was nothing in the
Pound except my family to keep me there.)
5. AU United States coins are silver-coloured, exceptfor the 'penny', which is a
brown coin. (Alison R. Lanier, Visiting the USA, World Today Press, Hong
Kong, 1978) (exceptfor = except)

11. Now the question is when this interchangeability is likely to occur

and when not.
1. We have discovered, through investigation, that 'except' and
'except for' are interchangeable when both are used to mean 'with the
exception o f . And in this case, the statement usually, though not
always, contains a determiner or indefinite pronoun of absolute
meaning: all, no, any, every, each, nobody, anywhere, everything, the
whole, etc. For example:
262 Li Chiu-ming and Hsi Ching-hua
G. 1. This book has no blunders exceptlexcept for a few spelling mistakes.
2. You may have any one you choose exceptlexcept for this one.
3. Like you, I have nothing to give exceptlexcept for my skill with the bulls.
4. AU the pupils attended the meeting exceptlexcept for Tony.
5. Except for a few small firms, the whole industry is participating in the
scheme. = The whole industry is participating in the scheme except a few small
firms.
2. We have also discovered that this interchangeability does not
occur, or 'except' is not to be used, in the following sentences, where
'except for' is used either to mean 'if it were not for' or to 'modify a

Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Dalhousie University on November 12, 2014

whole statement by making a reservation'. For example:
H, 1. She would leave her husband except for the children. (Longman Dictionary
of Contemporary English)
2. We had a very pleasant time except for the weather. ( R . Quirk, A Grammar
Of Contemporary English, Longman, 1973)
3. It is right except for the omission of accents. (The Concise Oxford Dic-
tionary Of Current English, 5th edition, 1964).
3. Furthermore we discover that 'except' is not used, generally, at
the beginning of a sentence. That is to say, the position of these two pre-
positions in a sentence is also an important factor in determining which
to choose. For example, it is correct to say:
I. 1. I invited everyone except George.
2. I invited everyone except for George.
3. Except for George, I invited everyone.
But generally not:
Except George, I invited everyone.
J. 1. We all went except Mr Brown.
2. We all went except for Mr Brown.
3. Except for Mr Brown, we all went.
But generally not:
Except Mr Brown, we all went.
But we also find that it is not absolutely impossible, although it is
rare, to begin a sentence with 'except', especially in American English.
For instance:
Except Christmas, we had no long holiday. (Webster's Third New International
Dictionary)
To sum up, our discussion, which has centered in the main on the
uses of 'except' and 'except for' when followed by a noun or pronoun,
or noun phrase, has led us to the following conclusions.
1. 'Except for' is fighting to share ground with 'except' when used to
mean 'with the exception of'. But when it is used to mean 'if it were not
for' or to 'modify a whole statement by making a reservation' only
'except for' can be used.
2. Usually it is not advisable to begin a sentence with 'except' unless
it is followed by 'for'.
Aspects where 'except' is followed, for example, by prepositions,
infinitives, adverbs, clauses, and grammatical elements other than a
 'Except' or 'Exceptfor'? 263

noun, pronoun, or noun phrase are not dealt with here, because they do
not present any doubts or difficultiesto learners of English.

References
F. T. Wood, Current English Usage: A Concise Dictionary. Macmillan, 1962.
A. S. Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learners' Dictionary of Current English, Third
edition, 1974.
R. Quirk, A Grammar of Contemporary English, Longman, 1973.
Paul Procter, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman, 1978.
L. A. Hill, Prepositions and Adverbial Particles. Oxford University Press, 1968.

Downloaded from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/ at Dalhousie University on November 12, 2014

Adam Makkai, A Dictionary of American Idioms, revised edition, Baron's Educational
Series, Inc., New York, 1975.
Bergen and Cornelia Evans, A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage. Random
House, 1957.
J. B. Heaton, Prepositions and Adverbial Particles. Longman, 1978.
L. G. Alexander, New Concept English (Longman): Practice and Progress, 1973;
Developing Skills, 1974; Fluency in English, 1976.
Oxford English Dictionary.
Webster's Third New International Dictionary
Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second college edition,
1972.
-. -.
Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus. G. and C. Merriam Company, 1976.
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 8th edition, 1973.
C. C. L. Barnhart, The American College Dictionary, Random House, 1956.
'The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 5th edition. Oxford at the
Clarendon Press, 1964.
George 0.Curme, Syntax. D. C. Heath and Company, Boston, 193 1.
Chien Ke-chuan, Detailed Explanations of Problems in English Usage. Printed in Hong
Kong, 1978.
Ke Chuan-kwei, A Dictionary of English Usage, revised edition. Times Press, Peking,
1962.
- - -

Yang Chung-kuang, English Prepositions. The Commercial Press, Peking, 1959.

A ComprehensiveEnglish-Chinese Dictionary. The Commercial Press, Shanghai, 1948.
Senkichiro Katsumata, Kenkyusha's New Dictionary of English Collocations.
Kenkyusha Ltd, 1958.
Kenkyusha's English-Japanese Dictionary. Kenkyusha Ltd, 1960.
Yoshimasa Inoue, A Dictionary of English and American Usage. Kaitakusha, Tokyo.
Roger's International Thesaurus, Third edition. Thomas Y. Cromell Company Inc.,
1962.
Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles.
H. Poutsma, A Grammar ofLate Modern English. P. N. Noordhoff, Groningen, 1926.
Kruisinga, A Handbook of Present-day English, fifth edition. P. Noordhoff, Groningen,
1932.