Being or Was (It being/was very dark)

[tung quoc]

Dear teachers,

I read this sentence in one book:

It being very dark, we went to the bed. (a)

What is the difference in meaning btw:

It being very dark, we went to the bed. (a)

and:

It was very dark, we went to the bed. (b)

Thanks
Quoc

P.S: Do you think with these 2 grammatical structures, (a) and (b) have the same meaning?

[Pamela]

It being very dark, we went to bed.

It being very dark is Nominative Absolute Participial Construction.
It being very dark is an adverbial modifier of cause here
You may paraphrase:

As it was very dark we went to bed

It was very dark, we went to bed.

Here I think both parts of the sentence seem quite independent

[tung quoc]

Dear Pamela,

Sorry, I don't understand.

a.It was very dark we went to the bed.
b.It was very dark, we went to the bed.
c.It being very dark we went to the bed.
d.It being very dark, we went to the bed.
e.As it was very dark we went to bed.
f.As it was very dark, we went to bed.

a.All are corect?
b. All are the same meaning?

Tung Quoc

PS: Please only say yes or no. For (a), if no, please list the incorrect sentences. Thanks teacher.

[Pamela]

a.It was very dark we went to bed. ( they are independent in this case, maybe you omitted smth,for ex. as at the beginning of the sentence?

b.It was very dark, we went to bed. (independent sentences)(you may separate them by comma, they are joined asyndetically)
d.It being very dark, we went to bed. (comma is necessary)
e.As it was very dark we went to bed. (you needn't comma here)