How to remove an underline on a pseudo-element?

Question

On Chrome and Firefox, if I apply a text-decoration:underline on a tag, by default the underline does not apply to the pseudo element. But on IE it does, and I can't remove it. I want the link to be underlined, but not the pseudo element.

It work if I add a span inside and put the underline on it, but I want to know if it can be made without additional markup.

a{		
	padding-left: 9px;
	position:relative;
	display:inline-block;

}
a:before{
	content:'\203A\00a0';
	position:absolute;
	top:0;
	left:0;
	display: inline-block;
}

#underline{
	text-decoration: none;			
}
#underline:hover{
	text-decoration:underline;
}
/* special for IE */
#underline:hover:before
{
	text-decoration:none !important;	/* does nothing ! */
}

#color{
	color:green;
}
#color:hover{
	color:red;
}
#color:hover:before{
	color:green;	/* work ! */
}

#span{
	text-decoration: none;
}
#span:hover span{
	text-decoration: underline;
}

<a href="#" id="underline">underline</a>
<br>
<a href="#" id="color">color</a>
<br>
<a href="#" id="span"><span>with span</span></a>

Answer 1

It seems that IE don't let you override the text-decoration in the pseudoelement if it isn't set in it. First let the pseudo-element be underlined - text-decoration: underline - and afterwards override this with textdecoration: none.

#underline:hover:before
{
	text-decoration:underline;
}

#underline:hover:before
{
	text-decoration:none;
}