Ascent or ascent ( uh sent ) means the act of going up or rising, literally or figuratively--
They watched the ascent of the hot air balloon until it was no longer visible.
The ascent of an airplane makes some people uncomfortable.
Assent or assent ( rhymes with ascent ) means the act of giving permission or agreement--
He gave his assent to the terms and conditions.
I would like to call my lawyer before I give my assent to this.
Assent may be used as a noun ( thing or idea )--
His assent is important to the contract talks.
Assent may be used as a verb ( action word )--
He has to assent to this, or the deal is off.
Accent or accent ( ack sent ) means a hint or note of something, as in home decor--
That vase would make a nice accent in a dull corner.
Accent also means the stress or emphasis on a word syllable, or the pronunciation of speech--
It is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable.
His slight foreign accent sounded sophisticated to most people.
Now that you know that, you can say--
"His accent made the ascent more difficult, as the crew didn't know whether they had his assent for the new route."
Note--"ascend" is the verb ( action word ) form of "ascent"--
They watched the plane ascend until it flew out of sight.
Note # 2--"assent" and "ascent" rhyme perfectly with "a sent", "a cent", and "a scent"--
He looked for a sent email with her address on it.
He doesn't have a cent.
There was a scent of gardenias in the air.
Note # 3-- "assents" is the third person singular ( he, she, it ) form of the verb ( action word ) "assent"--
We cannot continue unless he assents.
Not to be confused with "a sense"--
He had a sense of foreboding.
Words that sound the same when we speak may actually be two different words--which matters when we write them down. Spellcheck cannot help with this--it will show each word and the writer has to choose--to disambiguate them, if you will. I intend to update this daily, with another set of words it is possible to confuse, beginning with the simplest and most important. Questions and comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label a sent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label a sent. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
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