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Accept and Except sounds almost exactly the same, especially if you are not a native English speaker, however they have two completely different meanings.

To accept is to take in, say yes, or to willingly approve:

My sister accepted the present I gave her.

The gas station does not accept personal checks.

I was accepted into the college of my choice.

He proposed to his girlfriend and she accepted.

The website didn’t accept my password.

Except is not often used as a verb, and is almost always used as a conjunction or preposition that means but not, or unless (as a condition):

They let everyone into the party, except anyone who wasn’t invited.

I’ll take all of the flowers, except for the ones with dead leaves.

I will come with you to the store except if he comes.

To except (as a verb) is very rarely used, but it means to reject or exclude:

Cost per person is $50, but children are excepted and eat for free.

The confusion between the two words is almost solely due to the fact that they are similar in sound and spelling. Their meanings are very different, however, so my personal tip for you is to remind yourself that “ex” means former or without, so except would mean “without.” Also, if you mean to use a verb, it will almost always be accept.

What other grammar tips would you like to read about? Let us know in the comments!

As you have probably noticed, many of you have had articles rejected over tiny details, such as broken links.

You’re probably thinking, “but correcting a broken link is so easy!” You’re right. But while correcting a broken link is easy for us to do, each broken links adds up for us.

Thousands of articles are submitted to ArticlesBase every day, and as you know, it takes a while to get approved (usually within 48 hours). The percentage of articles submitted with broken links, bolded texts, or other tiny mistakes is high enough that correcting each article manually would result in a larger delay in having your articles published.

Before you submit your article, quickly look at your code and make sure the links are correct. While you’re at it, make sure you didn’t accidentally bold the entire article, and break your article into short paragraphs.

Today’s grammar tip was requested/recommended by Ruchira Roy on the ArticlesBase fan page on Facebook.

Last week I briefly touched on contractions as they related to the “you’re” versus “your” saga. The same tip applies here.

If you can replace the apostrophe with an “i” then the correct use is “it’s.” It’s is a contraction - the apostrophe represents the “i” that was dropped.

“It’s all good” = It is all good = It’s is the correct form.

The apostrophe can also represent the word “has.”

It’s been a long time = It has been a long time = it’s is the correct form.

Its, on the other hand, is a possessive pronoun that means “belonging to” of “of it.” It shows that something belongs to “it” ot “it” has a special quality. To test this version of the word, try replacing the word “its” with “her.” If the sentence still makes sense, then this is the correct spelling.

Its color is dark purple = her color is dark purple = its is the correct form.

The word its’ doesn’t actually exist. Don’t ever use it. Ever.