Accept is a verb meaning to receive or agree to something: I accept your offer. Except is usually a preposition meaning "excluding" or "apart from": Everyone came except Sam. The quickest test: if you can swap in receive or agree to, use accept; if you can swap in but or excluding, use except.
These two words sound almost identical, which is the whole problem. But they do completely different jobs in a sentence.
When you're unsure, run the swap test on the sentence:
For example, in Everyone ___ Sam left early, "Everyone but Sam left early" makes sense, so the word is except. In She ___ed the promotion, "She received the promotion" fits, so it's accepted.
Accept is always a verb. It comes from the Latin accipere, "to take to oneself," and that idea of taking something in runs through every sense: receiving a gift, agreeing to terms, believing a claim, admitting responsibility, or coming to terms with a hard truth.
Because accept is a verb, it changes form: accept, accepts, accepted, accepting. The related noun is acceptance (her acceptance of the award) and the adjective is acceptable. There is no noun spelled "accept."
Except is most often a preposition or conjunction meaning "not including." It traces back to Latin excipere, "to take out" — the opposite motion to accept. When you except something, you leave it out.
Note the last two. Except for is the usual choice when the phrase opens a sentence (Except for the noise, the flat is ideal), and except can act as a conjunction meaning "but" or "only" (I'd call, except I've lost your number).
Swapping one word for the other usually produces a sentence that is either nonsense or says the opposite of what you mean:
The first line is the sneaky one. Please except this gift is grammatically possible but means roughly the opposite of what the writer intends, so a spellchecker will never flag it. Only knowing the two meanings will catch it.
The neat shortcut "accept is the verb, except is not" is almost always reliable — but not quite. Except has a rarer verb sense meaning "to exclude" or "leave out," used mainly in formal, legal, or old-fashioned writing:
In everyday writing you will almost never need this, but it explains why "except" sometimes turns up as a verb and is still correct.
Excepting is a slightly formal preposition meaning "apart from": Everyone attended, excepting the interns. The phrase not excepting flips the sense to "including even": No one was spared, not excepting the manager. And except that introduces a clause: The plan is solid, except that we have no budget.
A third look-alike, expect ("to anticipate"), sometimes gets muddled in as well. The sentence I expect you to accept the offer, except on Sundays uses all three correctly — keep expect (anticipate) firmly separate from the other two.
Lean on the ex-. The words except, exclude, exit, and external all share the Latin root ex-, meaning "out." If you're leaving something out, reach for the word that starts like exit: except. For accept, remember that the a pairs naturally with agree and approve — exactly what you do when you accept something.
No, and it's worth saying plainly. Unlike pairs such as practise/practice or the -ise/-ize spellings, accept and except mean the same thing and are spelled the same way in American, British, Australian, and every other variety of English. The confusion is universal, and so is the fix. The only near-difference is in speech: some speakers give except a crisper "eks-" opening while accept begins with a softer "uhk-," but the spelling never changes.
Bottom line: accept takes something in; except leaves something out. Settle the meaning first and the right word follows.
Tie except to exit and exclude — all start with "ex-" and involve leaving something out, so except means "excluding." Accept starts with "a," like agree and approve, which is what you do when you accept something. If "but" fits the sentence, use except; if "receive" fits, use accept.
Yes, but rarely. Except has a formal verb sense meaning "to exclude": Under-fives are excepted from the fee. You'll mostly meet it in legal or old-fashioned writing and in the fixed phrase "present company excepted." In everyday English, treat except as a preposition and accept as the verb.
It's except for. The phrase means "apart from" or "not counting," as in Except for one error, the essay is flawless. "Accept for" is almost always a mistake — accept is a verb meaning to receive, and it doesn't pair with "for" in this way. When you mean "aside from," always write except for.
Everyone except me is correct. Here you mean "everyone apart from me," and except is the preposition that expresses exclusion. "Everyone accept me" would be an error, or an odd command to accept you. Swap in "but": "everyone but me" confirms that except is the word you want.
Accept is a verb meaning to receive or agree (accept a gift). Except is a preposition meaning excluding (everyone except Sam). Expect is a separate verb meaning to anticipate (I expect rain). They look and sound alike but are unrelated — check the meaning you intend before choosing which one to write.
