Make Your Editor Cry: Except, Accept, Expect
The words “except, accept, expect” have absolutely no senses in common. To except is to take or leave out from a number or a whole, as in to exclude. To accept is nearly the opposite and means to willingly receive something offered, which has nothing to do with excluding or making exceptions. To expect is to anticipate or look forward to the coming or occurrence of something which has nothing to do with either of the other two words.
Even so, we often see sentences in modern text that misuse these words entirely.
Incorrect:
John excepted to expect delivery of the package before noon, which was fine, accept that no one would be home between ten and eleven that morning.
These words properly used would make this sentence read as follows.
Correct:
John expected to accept delivery of the package before noon, which was fine, except that no one would be home between ten and eleven that morning.
Gregg Bridgeman is the Editor-in-Chief at Olivia Kimbrell Press. He is husband to best-selling Christian author Hallee Bridgeman and parent to three. He continues to proudly serve in the US Armed Forces and has done so in either an active or reserve capacity for more than twenty years as an airborne and air assault qualified paratrooper, earning a Bronze Star for his service. Most importantly, he was ordained in October of 2001 after surrendering his life to Christ decades earlier.