Learn English – Amass vs accumulate – is there a difference or can these be used interchangeably

You can ask that someone perform an action.
When you inquire you only request information.
You can ask for permission, a favour, or forgiveness, but not inquire for them.
They're not interchangeable, ask is broader.

The words mean pretty much the same thing.

In practice, one or the other tends to be preferred in any given context. Like we say that a person "collects stamps" or "collects classic cars", not that he accumulates them. But we say that a person "accumulated a large sum of money" or "accumulated a pile of trash".

"Accrue" is rarely used except with the specific technical meaning that Dilip refers to: something that is due you but that you haven't yet collected. The only examples I can think of off the top of my head are interest on a deposit, as in, "Interest is accrued daily and paid monthly", and vacation time or sick time, as in, "You accrue one and a half vacation days per month worked." (You don't necessarily have to take off one and a half days every month, but you accumulate the right at that rate.) Occasionally people use it to mean "accumulate" in a more general sense, like, "He accrued experience over the course of many years", but that's pretty rare.

I'm grasping for a general rule of when to use "collect" versus "accumulate". Perhaps "collect" has the connotation of selecting individual items, while "accumulate" is used more for an amorphous quantity. You "collect a debt" but you "accumulate wealth" -- the debt is specific but the wealth is general. You "collect fine china" but you "accumulate dishes". Etc.