except + verb?

[vkhu]

"He did everything except mow the grass"

Isn't the bold word supposed to be mowing? It was a multiple choice question and my instructor said the answer is "mow". Why is that?

[5jj]

Except is usually followed by an '-ing form: Don't think about anything except having a good time.

However, we use a bare infinitive for constuctions with Do ... except: She hasn't done anything except complain since she got here.

[TheParser]

"He did everything except mow the grass"

Isn't the bold word supposed to be mowing? It was a multiple choice question and my instructor said the answer is "mow". Why is that?

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

(1) May I share some information with you that may explain why your teacher gave "mow" as the correct answer?

(2) The great grammarian George O. Curme in his two-volume masterpiece gives this
sentence (I have copied it exactly as he wrote it, including the parentheses and the brackets):

I will do anything to show my gratitude but (or except) [that I do] marry the daughter.

I guess that the sentence above is a beautiful way of saying something like:

I will do anything to show my gratitude, but there is one thing that I will not do: marry the daughter.

(3) Thus, it is only my opinion that your teacher's "complete" sentence is:

He did everything except [that he did] mow the grass.

(He did everything, but there is thing that he did not do: mow the grass.)