ACCEDE / EXCEED
IF you drive too fast, you exceed the speed limit. "Accede" is much rarer word meaning "give in", "agree"
ACCURATE / PRECISE
In ordinary ussage, "accurate" and "precise" are often used as rough synonyms, but scientists like to distinguish between them. Someone could say that a snake is over a metre long and be accurate (the snake really does exceed one metre in length), but that is not a precise measurement.
To be precise, the measurement would have to be more exact: the snake is 1.23 metres long. The same distiction applies in scientific contexts to the realted words "accuracy" and "precision".
ACCESS / GET ACCESS TO
"Access" is one of many nouns that's been turned into a verb in recent years. Conservatives object to phrases like you can access your account online Substitute "use", "reach", or "get access to" if you want to please them.
ACCESSORY
There's an "ack" sound at the beginning of this word, though some mispronounce it as if the two "C's" were to be sounded the same as the two "SS's".
ACCIDENTLY / ACCIDENTALLY
You can remeber this one by remembering how to spell "accidental". There are quite a few words with -ally surffixes (like "incidentally") which are not to be confused with words that have "-ly" suffixes (like "independently"). "Incidental" is a word, but "Independental" is not.
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