Do you agree or accept?

MIND OUR ENGLISH Friday July 28, 2006


Do you agree or accept?

By GUY PERRING

MANY words in English are commonly confused and although unlikely to cause misunderstanding will cause a listener or reader to hesitate slightly before replying.

One of the more common is accept or agree which can be confused both due to grammar and meaning.

The list below illustrates some of the more common usages and rather than give a long, complex explanation of the reasons, I think the best way to appreciate the differences is to see them in action as below.

accept – verb – to agree to take (something), or to take (something) as satisfactory, reasonable, true, etc.

The former minister faces seven charges of accepting bribes.

Do you accept credit cards?

She was in London to accept an award for her latest novel.

As a token of our gratitude for all the work you have done, we would like you to accept this small gift.

I offered her an apology but she wouldn't accept it.

The new telephones will accept (= take) coins of any denomination.

I accept (= take) full responsibility for the failure of the plan.

The manuscript was accepted for publication last week.

She was accepted as (= It was agreed that she could be) a full member of the society.

His fellow workers refused to accept him (= to include him as one of their group).

The police refused to accept (= believe) her version of the story.

I can't accept (= make myself believe) that there's nothing we can do. [+ "that" clause]

I don't accept (= agree) that government policy is at fault. [+ "that" clause]

agree – verb – to have the same opinion, or to accept (a suggestion or idea).

I know what you think we should do, but I'm afraid I don't agree.

Ann and I never seem to agree.

I agree about Claire – she's not the right person for this job.

I agree with letting children learn at their own pace.

My father and I don't agree on very much.

I agree wholeheartedly with Paul.

All the members of the jury agree that Mr Thomas is guilty. [+ "that" clause]

Experts seem unable to agree whether the drug is safe or not. [+ "wh-" word]

"You're absolutely right," agreed George. [+ clause]

I suggested that we should meet, and they agreed (= said yes).

The bank has agreed (= is willing) to lend me RM50,000 to buy a new car. [+ to infinitive]

By reading and rereading the above, I hope you can start to appreciate the difference.

A good way to confirm your understanding is to rewrite the above sentences in random order, leaving out the "agree" or "accept". Come back to them a few hours later and see if you can fill in the gaps. Good dictionaries can also give plenty of examples.

Guy Perring is Director, Professional Development Unit (PDU), at the British Council Malaysia. The PDU offers a wide range of learning opportunities from management and communication skills training to developing English skills. Visit us at www.britishcouncil.org.my or e-mail guy.perring@britishcouncil.org.my.


I sent on July 30, 2006 my comments below to The Editor receiving no response.

The careful crafting of sentences is perhaps the most important step of all in creating an easily understandable piece of writing. This is advocated in HOW TO WRITE AND SPEAK BETTER of Reader's Digest reprinted in 2005.

With this advice in mind, I refer to the article, Do you agree or accept?? appearing in Mind Our English of July 28.

Ellipses appear to have been used in its first three paragraphs.

By doing away with the ellipses and re-writing the sentences a little in the following manner, let us see whether the results would be better to achieve efficacy:-

Quote

Many words in English are commonly confused and although unlikely to cause misunderstanding, they will cause a listener or reader to hesitate slightly before replying.

One of the more common is accept or agree which can be confused both owing to grammar and meaning.

The list below illustrates some of the more common usages, and rather than giving a long, complex explanation of the reasons, I think the best way to appreciate the differences is to see them in action as below.

Unquote

The replacement of "due to" with "owing to" in the second paragraph is for the reason that such usage of "due to" (which is similar in meaning to "owing to" except that as I was taught in the sixties, the former is an adjectival phrase while the latter is an adverbial phrase) is stated in The Concise Oxford Dictionary (Fifth Edition) (which has quoted a similar usage in a sentence reading, "I came late due to an accident") as incorrect although it is mentioned in http://www.thefreedictionary.com/due+to and http://www2.bartleby.com/68/75/2075.html that "due to" and "owing to" (which are both stated to be compound prepositions) can be used interchangeably to the objection of some critics and with a residue of conservative unhappiness and also with some Edited English and Oratorical speech still avoiding such uses.

Kengt, Penang