accept vs. except

In this lesson, we're looking at two tricky words - accept and except we'll look at what they mean and the memory tricks to remember which to use.

accept and except
They sound similar and both have the -cept ending which is stressed
ac + cept "acCEPT"
ex + cept "exCEPT"

Let's look at the meaning then the memory tricks to remember accept 
accept = to acknowledge, to agree, to approve...

Some of the meanings for accept =
to take something that someone gives you
It gives me great pleasure to accept this award.
to say yes to an invitation or offer
They offered her a job, and she accepted without hesitation.
to agree to do what someone asks or suggests
Our clients will never accept this proposal.

A memory trick to use for accept is to see the A in accept and in words with similar meanings =
ac - acknowledge
a - agree, admit, approve, allow
They offered her a job, and she accepted without hesitation.
They offered her a job and she accepted / agreed / approved

The word family
accept
accepted
accepting
acceptable
acceptably
acceptance
acceptability
opposite: unacceptable

except
except = something isn't included, not including, but not:
The museum is open daily except Monday(s).
It's cool and quiet everywhere except in the kitchen.
Everyone was there except for Sally.

A memory trick you could use is seeing the ex in similar words - exclusion, excluding, exclude your ex-husband, ex-wife, ex-boss, etc.

The word family
except
excepted
excepting
exception
exceptions
but we also have
exceptional
unexceptional
exceptionally
which mean impressive/unimpressive/good and to emphasise a point.
It was exceptionally good.
The film was unexceptional.

You can also have the opposite meaning when adding the prefix un- to acceptable
This is unacceptable behaviour
The new contract is totally unacceptable.

Spelling Test

There are 5 sentences - think about what accept and except mean in the sentence use the memory tricks
Is it accept with an "a" which means acceptable, allow, agreed?
or except with an "ex" which means to exclude
or to be exceptional = extra good or bad 

Press the red Go button on the player below

Answers

**Check your spelling letter by letter**

1. Credit cards are accepted here except American Express.

2. My new contract is unacceptable.

3. Just accept the fact that she's exceptionally good at everything except chemistry.

4. Everyone was there except Mark.

5. They offered me the job, and I accepted without hesitation.

How did you do? Keep practising and keep noticing these words everywhere and ask yourself the meaning within the sentence and remember the memory tricks and how you'd remember the word