the exception being Jo vs the exception is Jo

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hello everybody,
It’s such a long time since I had the summer vacation ,and now it’s time to go back to study again.
Now I have a confused question to ask you.Please look at this sentence:
1/The children did well, the only exception being Jo, who failed.
I think '‘being ‘’ in the above sentence must be changed into ‘‘is’’, but I read this sentence in a dictionary and I don’t think it’ wrong.
Please help me with this sentence.

2

Hi,

The use of the participle ‘being’ here is perfectly acceptable as it refers back to the subject.

Alan

3

Hello Alan,
Can you explain more clearly for me? Because don’t understand very thoroughly.As you say,it refers back to the subject ‘‘the children’’, but what about this:’’ The children did well but the only exception is Jo, who failed.’’ It sounds good, isn’t it ?

4

Hi,

I believe you can in a sense ‘get away with’ using the participle because of the vagueness of the connection but when you use a main verb ‘is’, you have to be more specific as in: but the only exception to that is …

Is that any clearer?

Alan