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rant @feddit.uk blackn1ght @feddit.uk 1w ago

"on accident"

Why the fuck do I keep seeing this so much? I swear I see it online all the time now.

29 comments

People getting mixed up between "by accident" and "on purpose". Why they get mixed up, I don't know.
- It happens - I got "on the ball" and "top of their game" mixed up and told a guy his wife was "on the game".
  
  It happens, you were on the top of your ball, that's what counts.
- Why they get mixed up
  
  American "no child kept behind" education?
- And you never see "by purpose".
It's one of those grammatic inaccuracies that has crept into colloquial standards.

It now essentially means the same as by accident, despite the words not matching in meaning.
- It’s like spuriously inserting the words ‘of a’ into sentences. That’s becoming a big of a problem too.
  
  I should of realized that.
- colloquial standards.
  
  .. which are, naturally, 'standards' with free judgement on the person saying it.
  
  Oh, don't worry: you don't need to select the added judgement. It just is there.
- Along with "forgot it at home"
I don't think I see it all that much, or I just don't clock it. One I do see constantly is "should of".
- This one enrages me. It's so specifically ignorant you have to do it on purpose.
  
  The people that do this absolutely know that "should'f" isn't a word, and they don't flinch when reading the word "should've". How can they possibly think "of" makes any sense?
  
  They're going out of their way to make English harder to teach and learn when they goof it that hard, and you just really have to be so stupid to do it in the first place.
  
  I'm all for subtle language evolutions, but doing things wrong on purpose isn't the way. But if anybody calls them out they do the equivalent of "nerd!" and ignore the correction.
  
  subtle language evolutions
  
  It's none of those things when it's being driven by popularity, and is thus a product of vapid influencers who probably never learned English let alone are qualified to guide its evolution.
  
  evolutions
  
  That's like 'traffics'.
They are doing it on accident
- Their not doing it by purpose?!
I think it's an American thing. I see and hear "whenever" used by them a lot when they mean "when", too - it's just one of those differences I guess!
- I mean they're pretty interchangeable.
  
  "I'll get to it when I can"
  
  "I'll get to it whenever I can"
  
  Granted there are times they're not interchangeable.
  
  "When do you want this done?" "Whenever"
  
  "When do you want this done?" "When"
  
  But in general they can be swapped and the same information is conveyed.
  
  Those uses are pretty interchangeable, but that's not what I meant -- I meant things like "when I was a child" vs "whenever I was a child", or "when I was sick" vs "whenever I was sick" (talking about one specific instance of being ill).
Let's make "negligently" a thing instead.
Instead of, "careless stupidity."
I used to push "on accident" all the time in the 90s and 00s but forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder, I will continue in my quest to make it the predominant form. Makes total sense, on purpose/on accident.
- Just to stick it to you, I'm going to push people to start saying "by purpose". Bwahahaha!
- Pretend we're laughing with you.

29 comments