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Homophones are some of the most confusing words in the English language. A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but is spelled differently and likely has a different meaning.

Accept vs. Except

Accept and Except are generally pronounced the same, despite the “ax” sound in accept and the “ex” in except.

Accept

Accept is correctly used as a verb meaning to receive, agree or include.

Except

Except can be a preposition (meaning apart from), conjunction (meaning but) or verb (meaning excluding).

The Easy-to-Remember Trick

Except = Ex

To except is to exclude.

Ex-boyfriend, ex-teammate, ex-partner…

You exclude your ex from everything, right? So when you’re meaning to exclude (such as in the examples above), think of the “ex” in exclude. If you’re trying to receive or include, then “ex-cept” is not the right choice and you want to use “accept” instead.

If you need some help with word choice or scanning your document for homophone errors, contact Unscripted any time.