5 exercises — practise naming a single potential blocker with the preposition "barring".
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "barring" plus a noun phrase to name the one thing that could block a release?
"Barring any last-minute regressions, the release will ship on Friday" correctly follows "barring" directly with a bare noun phrase. Option B wrongly adds a finite clause with "that... happen". Option C keeps a verb without a connector, which is ungrammatical. Option D wrongly inserts "of".
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "barring" to name the single event that would prevent an on-call engineer from being paged?
"Barring a total network outage, the alert should reach the on-call engineer" correctly uses the bare preposition "barring" with a noun phrase. Option B wrongly adds "for". Option C redundantly stacks "unless" with "barring". Option D adds an unnecessary participle "happening".
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly distinguishes "barring" (naming an exception that would prevent an outcome) from "except for" (naming an exception within an otherwise complete set)?
"Barring a hardware failure... except for one legacy server" correctly uses "barring" for the potential blocker to a future outcome and "except for" for the one item excluded from an already-true statement. Options B, C, and D swap or merge the two prepositions incoherently.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly places "barring" mid-sentence, after the main clause, to name a caveat on a forecast?
"...should complete overnight, barring any unforeseen compatibility issues" correctly attaches the bare noun phrase after "barring" at the end of the sentence. Option B wrongly adds "that". Option C wrongly inserts a finite verb "is" before "barring". Option D wrongly adds the verb "arise" after the noun phrase.
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "barring" to name the one circumstance that would stop a scheduled maintenance window from proceeding?
"Barring objections from the security team, the maintenance window will proceed" correctly places the bare noun phrase "objections from the security team" right after "barring". Options B and D wrongly turn "objects" into a finite verb with "barring" misplaced. Option C wrongly adds "if".