These two words may confuse people because they’re homonyms (i.e. they sound alike) but they are in fact different words with different meanings.
Accept is a verb meaning “to receive (something offered) willingly” (“He happily accepted the gift”) or “to give admittance or approval to” (“She was accepted into five colleges”). Except is used to mean “with the exclusion or exception of” (“The mail comes daily except on holidays”) or less commonly to mean “exclude”:
As an adult, each [porcupine] is covered on its topside, excepting the muzzle area, with upwards of 30,000 quills…
—Bil Gilbert, SMITHSONIAN, May 1992
What to Remember: Except starts with the prefix ex- because it’s about leaving things out.
Dive deeper: 'Accept' vs 'Except': Two Verbs, One Pronunciation