accept or except?
Do not confuse these two, even though they have similar pronunciations. Accept is a verb only; it means variously "to take something offered," "to believe something," and "to agree to something," as in We cannot accept [not except] such a lame excuse.Except can work as a preposition meaning "to the exclusion of," "excluding," as in All students except [not accept] the freshmen are eligible. It is also a conjunction meaning "if it were not for the fact that" and "otherwise than," as in I would have finished the course except [not accept] that I became ill at the end of the semester.The demonstrators did not quiet down except [not accept] to regroup and plan their next move. Finally, it is a verb used most often in the passive voice in the meaning "to leave out or exclude," as in Only children were excepted [not accepted] from attendance.
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