Many moons ago Gloria Jackson wrote an SDA blog about Homophones……words that are pronounced alike but have different meanings…..or spellings.

Such as: accept and except.

Both are primarily pronounced “ek” cept or “ak” cept.  Very similar sounding.

Accept functions as a verb….to receive or take something willingly.

Except is most often a verb (but can be a preposition)....to leave out or exclude (key here is “ex”…..exclude).

For example:

I accept your gift of a chocolate cake (yes, I would).

All the kitties were adopted except one (sad little kitty).

And as a bonus….I’ll put them in one glorious sentence:

I would most gladly accept your platter of delicious cupcakes, except the chocolate one with mustard frosting.

For more information on “accept vs except” please see the “Merriam Webster” site. 

Thanks to Carol Wanda Spradlin, CDFA, for providing our current Word Nerd feature.

Carol Wanda is the Office Manager for Baylis Architects in Bellevue, WA and

is a member of  the SDA Seattle Chapter.