Dear Rachel ,
I would like to ask about the following sentence :

- The weather being nice, we decided to go
hiking .

1) What kind of " being " here ?.( I think it's
neither a verb nor an adjective . What would
it be ?)

2) Shouldn't the first part of the sentence
" The weather being nice " contain a verb ?

Waiting for your kind reply .
Thank you very much .

Sayed

The sentence is fine.

"The weather being nice" is an absolute construction.

An absolute construction is actually grammatically not connected to the rest of the sentence, but it fits logically. The group of words can be considered as a sentence modifier. It usually contains a verb in its present or past participial form.

Here is an excellent definition of absolute construction from Bartleby*:

"Absolute constructions consist of a noun and some kind of modifier, the most common being a participle. Because they often come at the beginning of a sentence, they are easily confused with dangling participles. But an absolute construction modifies the rest of the sentence, not the subject of the sentence (as a participial phrase does). You can use absolute constructions to compress two sentences into one and to vary sentence structure as a means of holding a reader's interest. Here are some examples:

No other business arising, the meeting was adjourned.
The paint now dr, we brought the furniture out on the deck.
The truck finally loaded, they said goodbye to their neighbors and drove off.
The horse loped across the yard, her foal trailing behind her.

Constructions like these are used more often in writing than in speaking, where it is more common to use a full clause: When the paint was dry, we brought the furniture out on the deck. There are, however, many fixed absolute constructions that occur frequently in speech:
The picnic is scheduled for Saturday, weather permitting.
Barring bad weather, we plan to go to the beach tomorrow.
All things considered, it's not a bad idea"
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The Grammar Exchange has had some discussions of the absolute construction before. Take a look at the threads in these two links:

http://thegrammarexchange.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f...986076815#7986076815

http://thegrammarexchange.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f...801025324#6801025324

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This construction is used in writing more than in conversation (it is rarely used in conversation), and some authors and editors consider it heavy and something to avoid. It used to be employed more than it is now. However, used sparingly (maybe once or twice in a 2000-word essay), the absoloute construction can nicely vary the style of your sentences in a particular piece of writing.

Rachel
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*http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/001.html