Let’s continue with Word Knots, where we look at common instances of words that are often confused or misused. 

Our source for this installment is The Dictionary of Disagreeable English by Robert Hartwell Fiske (Chicago: Writer’s Digest Books).

Rather than take a stern ‘grammar police’ approach we always try to keep it light and in each installment point out examples of semantic confusion that should be considered “must to avoid.”

From Fiske:

Except

Misused for accept.

As Fiske goes on to say:

The confusion between except—which means excluding or otherwise than—and accept—which means to receive something offered to or to agree to something—is most often due to a lapse of carelessness rather than a lack of comprehension. Carelessness, however, is easily just as harmful as confusion.

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Let’s look at the most relevant Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary definitions:

except

verb

1   : to take or leave out (something) from a number or a whole : exclude or omit (as from consideration)

preposition

1   : with the exclusion or exception of

2   : otherwise, elsewhere, or for other reason than : other than : but

conjunction

1   : on any other condition than that : unless

2   : only — used with or without that

accept

verb

1    : obsolete : to treat with partiality or favoritism

2  a: to receive with consent (something given or offered)

3    : to give admittance to (as into one’s company or into a particular group)

4  a: to take without protest : endure or tolerate with patience

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I agree with Fiske that confusion over these two words would very likely be due to carelessness rather than misunderstanding the respective meanings.

But (and this is a big but), these days some people like to use AI software that transcribes speech into  text: That’s where the trouble could start. The tool could easily confuse the two words depending on the speaker and since AI does not comprehend or understand context, the swap in the text could easily be missed.

Examples of each:

The weather was beautiful at Cannon Beach, except for the early morning fog.

I wanted to take pictures on the beach, but had to accept that it was very foggy.

As always, word choice is critical, which is why checking your work is an important step toward ensuring that your intended meaning is clear.

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