glaringradio
Member
By accident. On purpose. Fin.
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By Accident or On Accident
- Thread starter Keyser Soze
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Accident is a noun.
Like mail, train, sea.
By mail.
By train.
It's short for "by way of" essentially. It means that what occurred, occurred by way of an accident.
By sea.
By accident.
Walter White Walker
Member
I use both - I've never really thought about it.
Muppet of a Man
Member
I think he means that he believes people who say "on accident" really mean "on purpose" and that they are mixing the 2 up.
Ohhhh that totally explains it, actually.
That is truly a horror.
CadetMahoney
Member
1st post nails it.
disappeared
Banned
You do something by accident, or accidentally.
UncleSporky
Member
My friend says "supposably."
He also says "we laughed hilariously" instead of "we laughed hysterically." Dumbest thing. And then he justifies it by saying that they were laughing in a hilarious manner.
He also says "we laughed hilariously" instead of "we laughed hysterically." Dumbest thing. And then he justifies it by saying that they were laughing in a hilarious manner.
Air Zombie Meat
Member
By accident. Didn't know on accident was even a thing.
thecouncil
Banned
i'm by.
Callo Merlose
Banned
I remember reading an article stating that this mistake is used for people mostly 21 and under. A mistake made so common, in the future, it'll be the norm. Like the whole "literal" acceptably meaning the opposite debacle.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
figadapaura
Member
It's "by accident", "on accident" sounds dumb as hell and it pains me every time I read it.
On accident is when you are claiming responsibility of your accident, admitting fault.
ClivePwned
Member
on case as fire, broke glass
Oh. Man, I always feel like such a champion for not believing bright and shiny folk etymologies, but I guess I still do it sometimes.
SirMossyBloke
Member
The word "accident" now looks like it's spelled incorrectly.
That's the definition of by accident.
People know the intended meaning, they are asking how anyone thinks "on accident" actually means it when it's broken down.
Accident is a noun.. a thing.. "the accident."
"On accident" basically would be short for "on the accident."
Like "on scene" or "on field." Which mean "on the scene" or "on the field."
It's essentially slang.. which is fine as long as everyone understands the slang. But slang is notorious for making it hard for non-native speakers, or even speakers of the same language in different cultures to understand each other.
edit: Wonder if I got trolled, lol.
Ehhhh. I don't think you'll ever escape this one. Doing homework with kids, it would take too long saying "So what's 6 multiplied by 6?" several times a minute. They learn it the "times" way, so blame the teachers.
Then again, there's no similar short hand for "divided by"...hmm.
"Over" works.
Why is "times" so aggravating? It's shorthand for "times the amount of."
Yeah, I thought that too, but I've never used it, at least when my end goal was the division of the two numbers. I've used it when talking about a fraction, I guess.
Times isn't aggravating to me. That's absolutely how I think about it when doing math in my head.
Yeah technically it refers to the fractional representation, but shorthand is shorthand.. so when you ask "What's 6 over 3" it's shorthand for "What's the numerical equivalent of the fraction 6 over 3."
"On purpose" refers to the verb form of the word purpose, not the noun. Accident has no verb form.
Air Zombie Meat
Member
Fixed it to make sense.
Triggerhappytel
Member
'On accident' doesn't even make any fucking sense. What idiots say that?
UncleSporky
Member
Let me clear this up: there's nothing wrong with just saying times, like "what's six times six." That's equivalent to "what's six multiplied by six."
What is aggravating is people who then use times as a stand-in for the word multiply in all situations. Instead of saying "multiply it by six," they say "times it by six." You can't "times it."
It doesn't make sense with the shorthand you give. You can ask "what's six [times the amount of] six," but it doesn't make sense to say "take five, and then [times the amount of] it by six."
I've even heard people use it in past tense. "I times'd them by seven."
It's as annoying as people using "itch" instead of "scratch," as in, "don't itch that rash, it'll git better on its own, Jed."
Taco_Human
Member
I don't think people say it was on accident, they say it was an accident.
UncleSporky
Member
No, people literally say "I did it on accident." That is the phrase people are talking about. Nobody is saying "I did it an accident."
Ah, gotcha. Thanks for answering.
MarcoZombieCannon
Member
I say "on accident" out loud. I don't think I've heard people actually say "by accident" very much. It's a bad habit, I know. I kinda chalk it up to a dialect/regionality thing.
But honestly should've and should of take the same number of keystrokes to type out. Get it right please.
This drives me nuts, but I can almost forgive people for it. When said aloud "should've" sounds like "should of" so I can see people making that mistake if they aren't really all that mindful of it.
But honestly should've and should of take the same number of keystrokes to type out. Get it right please.
D
Deleted member 1235
Unconfirmed Member
That's because you have an education.
RangersFan
Member
People say "on accident" wtf?
Yes, that's exactly what I was referring to! Yeah, I don't think it's going away any time soon, but it's just aggravating to hear managers in a professional setting use it like that.
Rest
All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
Do you mean writing "should of" instead of "should've?" Because there's nothing wrong with should've.
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