Comments on: On Accident

Question: On Accident

vorfeed — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 00:41:31 -0800

My teacher noticed that I say "on accident" when I mean "accidentally". Apparently everyone else in class says, "by accident". Is "on accident" a regionalism? An error? Should I be deeply paranoid about it? [More inside]

Googling brought up some pages that claim this is an error, and some that claim it's a regionalism. Now I'm curious - does anybody else say this? Anyone from an area where many people say it? I never even noticed it before, and now I can't stop thinking about it. English particles... everywhere... out to get me!

By: fishfucker

fishfucker — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 05:12:11 -0800

i'll say "on accident" occasionally, but for some reason in my mind it rings rather grade-schoolish -- i sorta chastise myself after it spills out of my mouth. i definitely think it's not anything you'd want to write and try to pass off as proper english, but hey, i try to pass off a lot of crap as proper that's far less grammatical.

i grew up in northern california, if that helps.

By: nelleish

nelleish — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 05:34:39 -0800

It might indeed be a Northern California thing, because that's where we were living for four years when my kid brother was learning to talk and he uses that phrase (although, he is only ten). My sister and I rarely say it that way, though it does happen now and again.

As a family, we also say "choose out" rather than "pick out" which I've only recently noticed much less have an explaination for. Does the rest of your family say "on accident"?

By: birdherder

birdherder — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 06:49:26 -0800

I also grew up in N. California but I've always said "accidentally". Then again, it was practically in Oregon.

By: Blue Stone

Blue Stone — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 06:49:48 -0800

Sounds like a gramatically incorrect obverse to "on purspose."

By: waxpancake

waxpancake — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 06:58:29 -0800

I'm in Southern California, and I hear this quite often.

By: katieinshoes

katieinshoes — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 07:00:17 -0800

We say "on accident" here in eastern Kansas (that being the civilized end of the state) without thinking twice about it.

By: adamrice

adamrice — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 07:01:25 -0800

I'd say it's a regionalism. I don't think that makes it wrong per se, but I'd avoid it in careful writing. Sort of like the sick to/sick at the stomach difference, but more noticeable.

And yes, you should be paranoid, but not because of this. Because of the black helicopters.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 07:24:15 -0800

I hate "on accident." And what Blue Stone said.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 07:29:58 -0800

Yeah I always hear "on accident" and "on purpose" and never their correct pronunciations. I am also from *cough* far-far-far eastern Kansas. Farther east then katieinshoes. I think it's traveling westward

By: jalexei

jalexei — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 07:39:48 -0800

Hmm, I've used both (grew up in Jersey) though in my middle years I've settled on "by"

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 09:08:58 -0800

Central Indiana representin' here. "On accident" is much more common than "by accident."

By: rhapsodie

rhapsodie — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 09:21:27 -0800

I hear/use 'on accident' as well as 'on purpose' and I grew up in Alaska.

By: Hildago

Hildago — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 09:47:09 -0800

If there's any question as to whether it's regional or an error, it's almost certainly regional. Nothing to worry about, unless you want to sound a different way.

By: furiousthought

furiousthought — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 10:05:10 -0800

Okay, where does "on accident" not pop up? I'm pretty sure I've heard and said it, and I'm in Texas. Never really thought about it before.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 10:11:10 -0800

Sounds like a gramatically incorrect obverse to "on purspose."

bingo. it immediately marks one as dumber than a box of rocks. that, and "could of" and "would of". but the grandaddy of them all was the site on which i saw the author suffered from "low self of steam".

By: quonsar

quonsar — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 10:13:36 -0800

and i suspect that it isn't regional but generational. 30 years ago i never heard anybody say "on accident".

By: quonsar

quonsar — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 10:15:00 -0800

and if they did, the standard response would have been "talk much?"

By: shepd

shepd — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 10:24:38 -0800

Chalk one up for Ontario, furiousthought. I was prepared to write up a grammar error post until I read this thread though...

By: Feisty

Feisty — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 10:34:15 -0800

Never knew "on purpose" was odd. I'll be it I've written worse.

By: vorfeed

vorfeed — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 11:08:44 -0800

Thanks for your responses, everyone. It makes me feel a bit better to see so many intelligent posters in the "on accident" boat. As for my background, I'm from Nevada, and my parents are from Arizona and Nebraska. I'm pretty sure that they also say "on accident", and I would suppose that many of the people I grew up around also did, given that I never noticed it before.

As for being marked as stupid, I don't mind that much - my speech is full of weird irregulars, partly for that very purpose. It's much easier to outmaneuver people when they think you're dumb... and much more fun, because you get to see that stunned look of realization with no extra work!

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 11:51:07 -0800

Never knew "on purpose" was odd.

"On purpose" isn't odd; "on accident" is the (apparently not so) unusual usage we're discussing.

By: majick

majick — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 11:55:16 -0800

I also never knew about "on purpose" sounding or being considered odd. What in the world would the alternate phrase be?

"On accident" sounds peculiar to my native San Franciscan ears. I hear it from time to time, from all manner of folks, but it doesn't ring true to me. My money's on regionalism.

"Choose out" sounds like Engrish mistranslation. I've never heard that before.

"I'll be it" rather than "albeit" reads pretty weird, too.

By: timeistight

timeistight — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 12:37:24 -0800

I'm Canadian. I've never heard of "on accident" before this thread.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 12:46:08 -0800

Yeah, sometimes I do that myself on mistake.

By: ArsncHeart

ArsncHeart — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 12:50:50 -0800

I'd hazard a guess it comes from learning that "accident" is the opposite of "purpose" (in this usage), so "on accident" is obviously the opposite of "on purpose".

Eastern Iowan: It depends on where in the sentence I use the "accident" part. If at the end, "on accident" is more nartual for me to say. If at the beginning, "accidentally" will probably come out.

e.g. "I broke the window on accident" and "I accidentally broke the window."

Unless, of course, I'd done it on purpose.

By: Mars Saxman

Mars Saxman — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 13:25:49 -0800

I should stop reading threads like this one. Descriptivism is so depressing...

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 14:37:20 -0800

One more data-point. I say 'on accident' all the time in casual conversation and so do many people I grew up with so don't feel too bad. I grew up in San Diego.

"Did you do it on purpose?"
"No, I did it on accident."

By: kindall

kindall — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 16:04:31 -0800

Sheesh. Next thing you know, you'll all be saying "different than."

By: deborah

deborah — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:44:28 -0800

Born and raised in the Orange County region of Southern California.

It was an accident.

or

I did it accidentally.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:46:59 -0800

30 years ago i never heard anybody say "on accident".

The education system was better back then.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 18:39:45 -0800

Ignore quonsar and rushmc, fine upstanding citizens who think language = morality. It's a regional thing, and it appears to be spreading (judging by this thread). At present it would look funny in print, but give it another fifty years and it will probably be considered a normal alternative.

By: vorfeed

vorfeed — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 20:01:22 -0800

Thanks, languagehat.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Sat, 28 Feb 2004 07:24:26 -0800

Language does not equal morality, but how a person chooses to use it does say a lot about them, and others will judge them by it. To suggest otherwise is disingenuous. If you don't care what sort of image you are presenting (and the very nature of this post suggests that in this case the person does), then don't worry about it and feel free to make up all the words, grammar, spelling and punctuation you wish.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sat, 28 Feb 2004 07:30:13 -0800

I've never ever heard that usage, in 15 years of bouncing around the planet. Must be America-only.

Descriptivism is so depressing...

Yeah, but so is prescriptivism, but depressing in an entirely different way.

By: dagnyscott

dagnyscott — Sat, 28 Feb 2004 08:49:39 -0800

I would say on accident, or accidentally. Never by accident.

Regional: West Michigan. Detroit is, I'm sure, another can of worms, as is the UP.

By: Dasein

Dasein — Sat, 28 Feb 2004 10:35:14 -0800

I've lived in Toronto and Halifax.

I've never heard of "on accident," and there's nothing wrong with "by accident." Maybe "on accident" is a regional thing, but it sounds just wrong to me. Just because something is widespread regionally doesn't make it correct, especially in formal writing.

Also, "on purpose," not "by purpose."

And let me add to quonsar's comment by saying that people who say things like, "If I would have gone to the store, I wouldn't have run out of food," really get to me. The "would have/would" construction in place of the correct "had/would" is another sign of the decline of Western civilization. It's even worse when people think they're saying "would of." The barbarians are surely at the gates.

By: vorfeed

vorfeed — Sat, 28 Feb 2004 14:59:07 -0800

If you don't care what sort of image you are presenting (and the very nature of this post suggests that in this case the person does), then don't worry about it and feel free to make up all the words, grammar, spelling and punctuation you wish.

Actually, I don't care all that much. Like I said above, I already use tons of irregulars in my speech, many of them deliberate errors, and I generally view being thought of as stupid as an advantage. I was just curious as to whether or not "on accident" was a regionalism.

This said, I really wish we could have skipped some of the sarcastic, content-free comments in this thread. There's a reason why the submission page for AskMefi asks us to refrain from posting wisecracks to the green.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sun, 29 Feb 2004 07:07:13 -0800

This said, I really wish we could have skipped some of the sarcastic, content-free comments in this thread. There's a reason why the submission page for AskMefi asks us to refrain from posting wisecracks to the green.

Amen. Lecturing from a high horse (or snarking from a low one) does not equal giving information.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Sun, 29 Feb 2004 20:22:19 -0800

"Should I be deeply paranoid about it" is a request for opinion. If you are too sensitive to hear people's real opinions, you probably shouldn't be asking.