Accept Vs Except: What's the Difference?

The language of English contains many words which have the same sound but completely different meanings. Thus, it makes things tricky when we use these words like accept vs except. However, we can make this easy for you. Accept and except are homonyms. This means they are words which sound the same when you say them out loud, however, they have different meanings. If English is your second language, it may be confusing for you too. But, you don’t have to worry as the purpose of this article is to get rid of any confusing arising from the use of these words.

While they sound similar, accept and except mean very different things. When we say accept, it means to believe in or receive. On the other hand, except means to exclude or unless. Here is a little trick for you to remember the difference between accept vs except. Think about these words in positive and negative terms. We generally use accept when we talk about something positive. For instance, accepting an award. Alternatively, except is used in a negative sense commonly like to leave something or someone out.

accept vs except

Difference between Accept Vs Except

It is clear now that accept and except mean very different things. But, as they have similar sounds and spelling, what should we do to remember the difference between accept vs except.

The most common way of recognizing the difference between these two terms is the first three letters in the word except. As it is ‘exc’ we will compare it with exclude. Both terms have the same letters and mean the same thing. So, the first three letters of except serve as a clue to its meaning.

On the other hand, the term accept begins with the letter a and the word agree also begins with the letter a. Thus, you can think of this trick and immediately remember its meaning. As their spelling and pronunciation are the same, it will take time but you will get there soon. For instance:

Will you accept her as your wife?

The restaurant remains open every day except for Thursdays.

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When/How to Use Accept

The word accept means to take or receive something which is offered or receive with approval or favour. For instance, I accept this opportunity. It also means to believe something to be true.

For example, when you say I accepted the present from my brother, it means that you are receiving something from your sister so you use the word accept. Further, when you accept any idea, it means you need to believe an idea to be true.

Let us take a look at the correct and incorrect use of accept vs except:

Incorrect: When Jimin asked Kendra to marry him, she happily excepted.

Correct: When Jimin asked Kendra to marry him, she happily accepted.

When/How to Use Except

The word except as a verb sense which means to exclude or leave out, like when we say present organization excepted. However, we can also use it as a preposition as they all went to the party except Kitty.

Further, we can also use it as conjunction like every inch of the hotel looks good except this corner. We also use except in the phrase except for like we would hang out more except for lack of time.

For instance, when you say everything was great, except for the cake. You exclude cake from everything which was great. Further, when you say everyone is attending the concert except for Jimmy. We use except as everyone is attending the concert but Jimmy is excluded.

Let us take a look at the correct and incorrect use of accept vs except:

Incorrect: All the classmates accept Wendy attended the sports day.

Correct: All the classmates except Wendy attended the sports day.

Examples of Accept – Using Accept in a Sentence

Accept is a verb which we use for indicating that we agree. It is also subject to conjugation. Further, we also use it to believe something is true. Finally, it also means to approve of something.

I am sorry but our store does not accept credit cards.
My professor does not accept late submissions.
I don’t think I will be able to accept you as my husband.
Do you think your parents will accept such a wild explanation?
We do not accept this kind of behaviour in our school.

Examples of Except – Using Except in a Sentence

We use except frequently as a preposition, which means but. Further, we also use it as a conjunction that means only, and in rare situations, we also use it as a verb which means to exclude.