Accept and Except
Accept and except are sometimes confused. They are called homophones because they sound the same but have different meanings and spelling. So, accept or except, which one should you use and when?
Accept vs Except
Accept is a verb that means to willingly receive, agree to, or to take something.
Examples
- I accept your offer of £1,000 to buy my old car.
- Your watermelon is a wonderful gift which I am delighted to accept.
- His job application was accepted at the last minute.
- She accepted my apology with good grace given my lamentable behaviour.
- Who in their right mind would accept me as an athlete?
Except vs Accept
Except is typically used as a preposition or a conjunction. It means to exclude or leave out something.
Examples
- Everyone arrived on time except John whose train was delayed.
- I love all fruit except kiwifruit.
- You can have any of those books except that one, which I want to keep.
- He is right except when he is wrong, which is most of the time.
- I won’t spoil the climax of the film except to say that he manages to succeed somehow.
In these examples, except shows that something is being or has been excluded or is an exception.
Just imagine
Think of yourself at a party. The hostess sidles up to you seductively with a tray of delicious cheese canapés. As you haven’t eaten all day, you cannot resist but graciously accept her offer.
“Wonderful” you say. “Thank you. They look delicious.” Your eyes gleam as you delicately extract a cheese morsel from the plate whilst masking your cocker-spanielesque enthusiasm.
Now, change the scene and think of your beautiful but dairy-intolerant girlfriend. She stands beside you and eyes that same plate of cheese canapés but without the excitement you feel. She thinks “I love party nibbles, except for those which contain cheese. Cheese doesn’t do me any good.” I am happy to accept, except those containing cheese.
So, here’s an analysis of the accepting and excepting situation or the accept versus except.
Accept means “Yes please, yum, yum” whilst except means “No thanks. I can’t risk being ill.”
Quick recap
Placing the two words together in line – ‘excepted accepted’ – they may look similar so here is a way of remembering. When it comes to excepted vs accepted, think of:
- Accepted which starts with an ‘a’ as being similar to A
- Excepted which starts with an ‘e’ as being similar to E
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