accident...
 

by accident, or on accident?

Re: accident...
 

Re: accident...
 

by accident

Re: accident...
 

by, and this should be a poll.

Re: accident...
 

by accident is the correct phrase.

though on accident is so widely used it is fine.

"Although you can do things on purpose, you do them by accident."

Re: accident...
 

A new "craze" among teenagers is the use of the phrase "on accident" instead of the correct idiom, by accident. Remember: it's "on purpose" but "by accident."

http://www.grammardoctor.com/archive10.htm

Re: accident...
 

Who the hell says on accident?

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
Who the hell says on accident?

[/ QUOTE ]

this guy

that's why i made this post. i just wanted to see if there existed a whole group of poeple who were saying it wrong.. like on line!

Re: accident...
 

depends on the context it is used in....give an example of what u want....

Re: accident...
 

I believe in the devolution of language: on accident

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
depends on the context it is used in....give an example of what u want....

[/ QUOTE ]

i don't think it does. i think one is right and one is wrong. you should give examples of where you think they are appropriate

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
depends on the context it is used in....give an example of what u want....

[/ QUOTE ]

i don't think it does. i think one is right and one is wrong. you should give examples of where you think they are appropriate

[/ QUOTE ]

Head on accident.

An article on accident insurance.

Focus on accident prevention.

I'm sure there are more.

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
depends on the context it is used in....give an example of what u want....

[/ QUOTE ]

i don't think it does. i think one is right and one is wrong. you should give examples of where you think they are appropriate

[/ QUOTE ]

Head on accident.

An article on accident insurance.

Focus on accident prevention.

I'm sure there are more.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thosre are stupid examples. OP obviously talking about when people use the phrase "on accident" as an interchangable one with "by accident"

Re: accident...
 

I use both, but I think "by" is correct.

craig

Re: accident...
 

This one irritates me quite a lot, I think "on accident" makes you sound about 5 years old.

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
This one irritates me quite a lot, I think "on accident" makes you sound about 5 years old.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. It's up there with "I could care less"

Re: accident...
 

i think it can only be correct used in the specific case of:

"i have pooped my pants on accident."

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
This one irritates me quite a lot, I think "on accident" makes you sound about 5 years old.

[/ QUOTE ]

And there are certainly situations where this trick can be useful.

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
depends on the context it is used in....give an example of what u want....

[/ QUOTE ]

I ate ass on accident. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

That's what I told her anyways I hate you all good night.

Re: accident...
 

yeah, when will people figure out that if you "could care less" THEN YOU CARE!!!!

its "couldn't". I dont know why but it annoys the hell outta me.

Re: accident...
 

i dont even know the answer, i use both all the time

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
yeah, when will people figure out that if you "could care less" THEN YOU CARE!!!!

its "couldn't". I dont know why but it annoys the hell outta me.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's meant to be sarcastic. Moran.

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
yeah, when will people figure out that if you "could care less" THEN YOU CARE!!!!

its "couldn't". I dont know why but it annoys the hell outta me.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's meant to be sarcastic. Moran.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ive never believed anyone saying "I could care less" was trying to be scarcastic. Theyre just parroting back a phrase they heard incorrectly. Sarcasm is the perfect ad-hoc excuse to prevent sounding like a [censored].

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
yeah, when will people figure out that if you "could care less" THEN YOU CARE!!!!

its "couldn't". I dont know why but it annoys the hell outta me.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's meant to be sarcastic. Moran.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ive never believed anyone saying "I could care less" was trying to be scarcastic. Theyre just parroting back a phrase they heard incorrectly. Sarcasm is the perfect ad-hoc excuse to prevent sounding like a [censored].

[/ QUOTE ]

I could care less what you believe. (joke).

Don't take it from me, take it from World Wide Words.

[ QUOTE ]
Attempts to be logical about "I could care less fail". Taken literally, if one could care less, then one must care at least a little, which is obviously the opposite of what is meant. It is so clearly logical nonsense that to condemn it for being so (as some commentators have done) misses the point. The intent is obviously sarcastic—the speaker is really saying, “As if there was something in the world that I care less about”.

However, this doesn’t explain how it came about in the first place. Something caused the negative to vanish even while the original form of the expression was still very much in vogue and available for comparison. Stephen Pinker, in The Language Instinct, points out that the pattern of intonation in the two versions is very different.

There’s a close link between the stress pattern of I could care less and the kind that appears in certain sarcastic or self-deprecatory phrases that are associated with the Yiddish heritage and (especially) New York Jewish speech. Perhaps the best known is I should be so lucky!, in which the real sense is often “I have no hope of being so lucky”, a closely similar stress pattern with the same sarcastic inversion of meaning. There’s no evidence to suggest that I could care less came directly from Yiddish, but the similarity is suggestive. There are other American expressions that have a similar sarcastic inversion of apparent sense, such as Tell me about it!, which usually means “Don’t tell me about it, because I know all about it already”. These may come from similar sources.

So it’s actually a very interesting linguistic development. But it is still regarded as slangy, and also has some social class stigma attached. And because it is hard to be sarcastic in writing, it loses its force when put on paper and just ends up looking stupid. In such cases, the older form, while still rather colloquial, at least will communicate your meaning—at least to those who really could care less.

[/ QUOTE ]

The vituperativeness of your criticism seems to me to lend credibility to the author's claim of social stigma.

Re: accident...
 

I could start a website and start justifying stupidity on it too, that won't make it correct.

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
I could start a website and start justifying stupidity on it too, that won't make it correct.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or you could just continue doing it on internet forums.

Re: accident...
 

wow dude, no offense intended but you're totally coming across as an [censored].

not to mention the fact that it is STUPID to use a phrase like that, taken at face value, as sarcasm... it'll never be accepted as sarcasm.

That is a ridiculous excuse for looking like a moron.

you lose.

Re: accident...
 

I agree with you maryfield. I think behemoth see's you as an [censored] because he has no way to support his opinion (other than by namecalling)... while you do.

While I could care less that behemoth is being an [censored], I still felt the need to post about it.

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
wow dude, no offense intended but you're totally coming across as an [censored].

[/ QUOTE ]

Am I? And the people who are judging others as stupid for using a particular phrase are not [censoreds]? And when I cite a reference that quotes one of the most published and respected linguists in the USA, and contains a fairly reasoned explanation of the usage of the phrase in question, the responses are to completely ignore that content? And I'm a [censored]? Fine, I'd rather be a [censored] than not in this context.

[ QUOTE ]
not to mention the fact that it is STUPID to use a phrase like that, taken at face value, as sarcasm... it'll never be accepted as sarcasm.

[/ QUOTE ]

And yet you know what meaning the person using the phrase intends. How does that work, exactly? Could it be that the meaning is taken from both the context and the fact that it is often used in that way? Why is it easier for you to believe that the speaker does not realize that the literal meaning is the opposite of the intended meaning? Anyone not capable of understanding that would have a hard time randomly stringing 3 words together.

[ QUOTE ]
That is a ridiculous excuse for looking like a moron.

you lose.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey, if you say so.

Re: accident...
 

haha, I didnt namecall.

I said he was coming across as an ahole because of his insult to tony p.

I said that the people who would go through all that trouble to show that it was sarcasm look like morons for attempting to make the excuse.

and I did show a line for my argument, but apparently you just wanna say Im a mean mean man.

whatever

Re: accident...
 

It's "by accident."

I rely on this webpage to check my grammar. Here's his entry.
On Accident / By Accident

ScottieK

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
Am I? And the people who are judging others as stupid for using a particular phrase are not [censoreds]? And when I cite a reference that quotes one of the most published and respected linguists in the USA, and contains a fairly reasoned explanation of the usage of the phrase in question, the responses are to completely ignore that content?

[/ QUOTE ]

That is not a reasoned explanation.

[ QUOTE ]
Taken literally, if one could care less, then one must care at least a little, which is obviously the opposite of what is meant. It is so clearly logical nonsense that to condemn it for being so (as some commentators have done) misses the point. The intent is obviously sarcastic—the speaker is really saying, “As if there was something in the world that I care less about”.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is what you call a reason expanation? This is nothing but pure nonsence. The phrase "I could care less" is most often used by uneducated people who are just spitting back a phrase that they hear. To suggest that these morons are actually being sarcastic is nothing short of idioitc.

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Am I? And the people who are judging others as stupid for using a particular phrase are not [censoreds]? And when I cite a reference that quotes one of the most published and respected linguists in the USA, and contains a fairly reasoned explanation of the usage of the phrase in question, the responses are to completely ignore that content?

[/ QUOTE ]

That is not a reasoned explanation.

[ QUOTE ]
Taken literally, if one could care less, then one must care at least a little, which is obviously the opposite of what is meant. It is so clearly logical nonsense that to condemn it for being so (as some commentators have done) misses the point. The intent is obviously sarcastic—the speaker is really saying, “As if there was something in the world that I care less about”.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is what you call a reason expanation? This is nothing but pure nonsence. The phrase "I could care less" is most often used by uneducated people who are just spitting back a phrase that they hear. To suggest that these morons are actually being sarcastic is nothing short of idioitc.

[/ QUOTE ]

I define sarcasm (in this context) as the use of words the literal meaning of which are the opposite of (or significantly at variance with) the meaning intended. You perhaps define it differently, which could give rise to the disagreement.

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
haha, I didnt namecall.

[/ QUOTE ]

I did though. I called you "moran". The use was intended to be slightly tongue in cheek, since it 'OOT's own insult', almost an honour. But it would have been impossible to parse this in the context so I no doubt came off as more of a [censored] than I really am. Apologies.

[ QUOTE ]
I said he was coming across as an ahole because of his insult to tony p.

I said that the people who would go through all that trouble to show that it was sarcasm look like morons for attempting to make the excuse.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tony P responded flippantly to me, so I flipped him off. I think that's fair play.

It was perhaps 30 seconds work on google to find that reference, so it was not much trouble at all.

By the way, you make a distinction between saying "you are a moron" and saying "you look like a moron" that seems to me a bit of a dodge.

Re: accident...
 

I kicked him in the groin by accident while waiting in line.

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
I kicked him in the groin by accident while waiting in the queue.

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP-funq!

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
haha, I didnt namecall.

[/ QUOTE ]

I did though. I called you "moran". The use was intended to be slightly tongue in cheek, since it 'OOT's own insult', almost an honour. But it would have been impossible to parse this in the context so I no doubt came off as more of a [censored] than I really am. Apologies.

[ QUOTE ]
I said he was coming across as an ahole because of his insult to tony p.

I said that the people who would go through all that trouble to show that it was sarcasm look like morons for attempting to make the excuse.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tony P responded flippantly to me, so I flipped him off. I think that's fair play.

It was perhaps 30 seconds work on google to find that reference, so it was not much trouble at all.

By the way, you make a distinction between saying "you are a moron" and saying "you look like a moron" that seems to me a bit of a dodge.

[/ QUOTE ]

no no its not a dodge.. I was actually trying to help out. Sometimes I'll say something meant in jest or just unthinkingly and it'll come off ahole-ish when it wasnt meant that way.

So I wanted to actually let you know, in case you werent meaning it that way (which it turns out you werent).

and I dont think ANYONE should EVER take it seriously when people deliberately say "moran".

Re: accident...
 

[ QUOTE ]
I agree with you maryfield. I think behemoth see's you as an [censored] because he has no way to support his opinion (other than by namecalling)... while you do.

[/ QUOTE ]

Here is something to support the fact that "I could care less" is not sarcasm: It's obviously not. This is the exact same evidence as maryfield's whole quoted paragraph (although condensed) with the exception that it's actually true.

I mean, look who says it.

Re: accident...
 

by. there is no way this should be a post.

Re: accident...
 

The people who use "on accident" are the same people who say "I aksed you a question."