Rant- “on accident” – IOTW Report

Rant- “on accident”

“He walked into the sliding glass door on accident.”

“He walked into the sliding glass door by accident.”

“He walked into the sliding glass door accidentally.”

Which would you use?

I would never say “on accident.”

It doesn’t even flow nicely as a combination of words.

It sounds… like ebonics.

I read an explanation that says it seems to be more commonly used by people born after 1995. So, I have my explanation.

Kids are getting a much different education these days.

58 Comments on Rant- “on accident”

  1. By accident.

    I would also put the word “accidentally” as the second word in your third quote.

    Redone:

    “He accidentally walked into the sliding glass door.

    I think that flows much better.

    41
  2. …It doesn’t seem like you should have to qualify it with “accident” at all, unless there’s some reason to believe he walks into sliding glass doors deliberately…

    17
  3. Dadof4 — It flows better because “accidentally” is an adverb and, generally, adverbs precede the verb they are describing.

    “He accidentally walked into the sliding door.”

    17
  4. “Accidentally walked” because the adverb goes first. I can’t balance my checkbook to save my life but I do know English.

    My pet peeve is “I seen”. I hear it constantly and it pisses me off every single time. “Could of” “would of” “should of” are right up there, too.

    16
  5. Brown Eyed Girl is correct. I modify my comment to agree that “He accidentally walked into the sliding glass door.”

    And AnonTrooper, nobody “accidentally” has too many beers. But I know that you knew that. 😉

    8
  6. When my kids were young (think 3-4 years old here) they would get confused with “on purpose” and “by accident”. Many times I had to correct the “on accident” and “by purpose”. They were little and learning. Anyone saying, “on accident” past 4 years old has no engaged parent (and I won’t even start with the illiterate teachers out there!).

    Thankfully, I was a grammar nazi and even my 3 year old grandson knows the difference between “good” and “well”. 🙂

    9
  7. By the by, when employed at the Rayburn Bldg. we had automatic sliding glass doors at the entrance to the Subway to the Capitol. A fukkin moron walked into the glass and after that red lines were painted on the glass to alert other morons that there was glass in the doors. Even on the glass that didn’t move!
    That was about 40 years ago, so Congress has been infected with morons for quite a while.

    izlamo delenda est …

    6
  8. By accident. My kids say “on accident”. I thonk of it as a childish thing. Now…

    “step foot”, or “set foot”?

    I reckon that is more of a regional thing, but “step foot” irks me for some reason.

    3
  9. It’s always somebody else’s fault.
    If that somebody has deep pockets, sue the hell out of them!
    “You’re honor, my client didn’t see the glass because it is deceptively transparent…”

    6
  10. “My pet peeve is “I seen”. ”

    I’ll go one better with, “I seent it.”

    And then there’s, “What had happened was…”
    “He drownded” <-- that's cute when you're a little kid, but when you're 32 and speaking to a reporter? No. I had to juggle 3 languages up until age 12, so sometimes I really have to stop and look at what the hell I'm writing. 🤣

    6
  11. My mom used to HATE HATE HATE it when people said “on accident.” Needless to say, I never got away with it and have always said “by accident.” She’d point out uneducated people said on. On accident doesn’t sound right to me at all.

    Recently I looked into it since I kept hearing people use the “on accident” bit and to my surprise what I read said both were acceptable forms, as BFH pointed out younger people use “on.” However, when written the more acceptable usage is “by accident.”

    Nothing should surprise me now that the dictionary is filled with woke words.

    3
  12. Whether it was an accident or not, he walked into the sliding glass door. Accident is irrelevant, of course no one would intentionally walk into a sliding glass door.

    3
  13. MJA

    My pet peeve is people who say “underwears”.
    Commonly expressed by Jersey Guidos & people of Woodbridge, Ontario.

    2
  14. At the local government liquor store, they have little signs that say

    PAPER
    BAGS will
    now
    BE 25 CENTS

    with the “will be” in small print taking the same vertices space as “BAGS.”

    Every time I see that I thing it says “PAPER BAGS BE 25 CENTS.”

    2
  15. Are you up for a challenge? Try “The Sound and the Fury.”

    Meanwhile, you can parse these:
    “All aspirin is not alike.”
    “Not all aspirin is alike.”
    Do they have the same meaning?

  16. “He walked into the sliding glass door, accidentally.”
    That is correct.

    C’mon man!
    I struggle through life with only a 12ph grade public education which is well past its best used by date.
    Accidentally is an adverb describing how he walked, not how he navigated the door, no?
    By accident he walked into. By accident is 11 keystrokes.
    , accidentally. is 15.

    2
  17. ǝpɐɥsʇɥɓᴉuɹǝdnS, underwear is now dinnerwear at our house. 30 years ago one of my kids couldn’t get it through his head that it’s underwear, not dinnerwear. So it stuck.

    2
  18. by accident, into the sliding glass door he walked…..

    into the sliding glass door, by accident, he walked….

    from the glassy knoll, he shot the accident……

    …..grammar is confucious…

    3
  19. “All aspirin is not alike.”
    “Not all aspirin is alike.”
    Do they have the same meaning?

    No. They don’t.

    In the first instance every single aspirin would need to be unique in some way.

    In the second instance it’s just saying they are not all the exact same thing. Allows for variance, but masses of them may be the exact same thing.

    2
  20. Yeah, these get me also:

    “looser” instead of loser.

    “Can’t have your cake and eat it too.” It’s Can’t EAT your cake and have it too.”

    All the times then and than are mis-used.

    Waiting in a queue is not “Waiting On Line”! That’s retarded. It’s “I’m waiting IN line to buy tickets”.

    And I switch my D-i-L’s bath tissue so it comes over the top when I use their bathroom.

    Kids, what do they know?!

    2

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