There are a handful of mneumonic tricks for keeping track of these sorts of 'difficulties' with the language.
As in "I before E except after C or sounding like A as in neighbor and weigh".*
Many find it equally difficult to differentiate between Accept and Except; so I offer this: remember that to Accept is a very Active operation.
Perhaps that is a poor example but the firs that comes to mind.
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*This relates directly to one of my personal peeves. The song that is associated with the US Navy is "Anchors Aweigh" but so often (mis)stated as Anchors Away.
