{"id":858,"date":"2021-12-29T20:49:07","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T20:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/twfstaging.com\/blog\/?p=858"},"modified":"2025-09-16T12:10:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T12:10:29","slug":"accept-vs-except","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/accept-vs-except\/","title":{"rendered":"Accept vs. Except"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Look, it’s time to accept <\/em>reality – you might not know when to use “except” vs. “accept.” But you\u2019re not the only one. Accept vs. except is one of the more frequent grammar questions<\/a>, and plenty of people mix up the two words without knowing they\u2019re making a mistake at all. In this article, we\u2019ll explain the different meanings of Accept vs. Except, provide examples of when to use each word, and then give you an opportunity to test your new knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Does Accept Mean?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Accept\u2019 is a verb<\/a> that usually means to \u201cconsent to receive something.\u201d \u2018Something\u2019 here can refer to both tangible or abstract objects. For instance, you might say, \u201cHe accepted his Christmas gift graciously,\u201d but you could also say, \u201cShe was thrilled to accept his marriage proposal.\u201d Adjacent to this meaning, students can be accepted into school, or someone can be accepted into a group or club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another meaning of \u2018accept\u2019, which is also quite common, is to \u201cbelieve or come to recognize something.\u201d For instance, you might say that \u201cHis family has come to accept his love for Lego,\u201d or, \u201cEventually, he accepted that there was nothing he could do to change her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Does Except Mean?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The definition of \u2018except\u2019<\/a> is more complicated. \u2018Except\u2019 is usually a preposition, though it can also be used as a conjunction or verb. As a conjunction, \u2018except\u2019 means the same thing as \u201cunless.\u201d For example, you might say, \u201cI told him nothing, except that I hated him,\u201d or, \u201cShe loved all types of dogs, except for Golden Retrievers.\u201d In this usage, \u2018except\u2019 is almost always followed by \u2018that.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a preposition, \u2018except\u2019 means \u201cnot including.\u201d For instance, you might say, \u201cI was soaking wet except for my hat,\u201d or, \u201cExcept for Sarah, everyone at the party was allergic to peanuts.\u201d In this usage, \u2018except\u2019 is almost always followed by \u2018for.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, \u2018except\u2019 can also be used as a verb meaning \u201cto exclude.\u201d For instance, you could say, \u201cSam was excepted from the group who had to perform community service,\u201d or, \u201cHe excepted the outliers from his calculations.\u201d In this case, \u2018except\u2019 must always be paired with an object \u2014 in the first sentence, the object of \u2018Sam,\u2019 and in the second case, the object of \u2018the outliers.\u2019 This word is generally only used in formal settings, so likely isn\u2019t something you\u2019ll hear in day-to-day conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tips to Remember<\/strong> Accept vs. Except<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The best way to remember the difference between \u2018accept\u2019 and \u2018except\u2019 is to remember that, if you\u2019re looking for a verb<\/a>, \u2018accept\u2019 is almost always your answer. On the other hand, if you\u2019re looking for a conjunction or preposition, you\u2019re definitely in the market for \u2018exclude.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One easy tip to remember the difference, if you aren\u2019t the greatest speller in the world, is that to ‘ACcept’ something is to ‘ACt<\/strong>.’ On the other hand, ‘EXCept,’ which is not a verb, means to ‘EXClude<\/a>‘ <\/strong>something. Hopefully, these tricks can help you the next time you get stumped!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Test Yourself<\/strong> on Accept vs. Except!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ready to test your knowledge? Use our quiz below to cut your teeth on your new skills. Just fill in the blank in each sentence with the appropriate word. Struggling to get the correct answers? Re-read the article and try again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. When the horror movie villain revealed himself, everyone _____ for the dog jumped.<\/li>
  2. _____ for my mother, I\u2019ve never met anyone who liked to eat pickle sandwiches.<\/li>
  3. It\u2019s time you ____ the truth: Firefly was cancelled, and it\u2019s never coming back.<\/li>
  4. I never liked cheese, ________ for nacho cheese, which is so different it hardly counts.<\/li>
  5. ______ for Illinois, I don\u2019t like much of the American Midwest.<\/li>
  6. After much internal angst and thought about the matter, she realized she had to _____ herself for who she was.<\/li>
  7. All primates like to live in groups, ____ for humans, who sometimes like to live alone.<\/li>
  8. She almost screamed when she got the letter in the mail and learned she\u2019d been _____ into Princeton.<\/li>
  9. His family was so welcoming; they _____ her into the fold after only a single dinner together.<\/li>
  10.  ______ the truth: the Earth is round!<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Answer Key<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    1. Except; 2. Except; 3. Accept; 4. Except; 5. Except; 6. Accept; 7. Except; 8. Accepted; 9. Accepted; 10. Accept<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Feedback<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      Was this blog post helpful for you? Do you still have questions about accept and except, or do you have questions about other homophones or commonly mixed-up words? Let us know in the comments and we might be able to create a post about it! Or check out our past grammatical blog posts, including our There, Their, and They’re blog post.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Look, it’s time to accept reality – you might not know when to use “except” vs. “accept.” But you\u2019re not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1416,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions\/1416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}