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‘On accident’ or not, Grammar Girl, this is indeed an atrocity
September 1, 2009 | 9:15 am
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By David Rothman
“According to Barratt’s study, use of the two different versions appears to be distributed by age. Whereas on accident is common in people under 35, almost no one over 40 says on accident. Most older people say by accident. It’s really amazing: the study says that ‘on is more prevalent under age 10, both on and by are common between the ages of 10 and 35, and by is overwhelmingly preferred by those over 35.’ I definitely prefer by accident.” – Grammar Girl.
The TeleRead take: Good for you, GG. Alas, since e-books are more of a grassroots medium than p-books, I suspect we’ll see “on accident” in them first. Might some marketers actually welcome this? What a great way to make grammatical writing sound obsolete!
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Okay, I don’t think I’ve ever even heard “on accident” used before this very post. But even so… is it so horrible? I mean, like, it’s not as if, like, everyone’s saying “like,” like, all the time… and “on accident” even makes some grammatical sense (it complements “on purpose”).
If our national rules of grammar are amended for “on accident,” you won’t hear, like, a peek out of me.
As I posted in the comments on the article, I remember saying “on accident” when I was a little kid. It’s just one of the little grammar mistakes you make when you make the larger mistake of assuming the English language is in any way consistent.
Someday, I should just give up and learn Esperanto.
As Steve said, I don’t think I’ve ever heard or read “on accident” expect on a different review of the same subject. It isn’t a horrible grammar foible, but it does still sound wrong to me.
However, I do find the age break interesting. The usage probably does have a common origin.
i’m past 40 and use ‘on accident’ with some frequency. of course, i use it explicitly to mock the young — the same way i use ‘he goed away’… i know many who say ‘let’s went’ — which in my crowd tends to mean something like ‘let’s get outta here *yesterday*’; to express a desire for physics-defying soonerness of departure.
language is just fun to mess with. and it’s changing all the time. those changes rarely being complete, one is free to use all variants to express similar ideas in subtly different ways. it’s all good!
Never heard anyone say ‘on acident’. Is this an American thing?
It does seem to be an American English term according to this website which specializes in examining the differences between British and American.
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2009/07/on-accident.html
It’s definitely common in America. I never thought “on accident” sounded right.
My first instinctive question is why the teachers aren’t correcting them. True English evolves and changes with each generation but are not the teachers supposed to educate people with the correct use of grammar? I recall one of my English teachers being very fussy about people using double negatives and correct use of the written form which would always be different to the spoken, he reminded us, but the rules would still apply. ‘on accident’ simply sounds wrong let alone how it would look written in context.
Perhaps I have become a pedant in my middle years?
Poor grammer is a sign of the uneducated. Unfortunately there are a lot of those in the USA, where education beyond high school is costly, and where the number of children leaving the school system before graduating high school is a rarely spoken about national disgrace. I’ve never heard “on accident’ before, but “I seen” makes me cringe.
Ah…and there’s the split infinitive too. The most famous of which is “where no man has gone before”. Noone notices or cares about this one anymore.
As the great Stephen Fry says, language can and will always change always and who is to say what is right and wrong.
My ex-wife when learning English used to complain that unlike other languages which have many rules and few exceptions, English is the other way around. Too few rules and many many exceptions, many of which are simply accepted. American English is now more dominant due to the influence of films and television. I have heard people use the word ‘period’ instead of ‘full stop’ quite often now. Even Tony Blair used it once in a press conference. Hard to stop the changes despite the desire.
I only know I will glare menacingly at anyone who says ‘on accident’.
‘always change always’…excuse the error in my language…haha
David Rothman says “Alas, since e-books are more of a grassroots medium than p-books, I suspect we’ll see “on accident” in them first.” However, the appearance of “on accident” in a paper book predates the existence of ebooks. In 1971, the University of North Carolina Press published “Tragedy and Fear; Why Modern Tragic Drama Fails” by John Von Szeliski and it contains the controversial phrase:
In 1996, a literary collection associated with the prominent authors Joyce Carol Oates, James Ragan, and X. J. Kennedy titled “Southern California Anthology, Volume 13″ included the criticized phrase:
Below are some more citations from newspapers, magazines and books. Language is a living organism that is continually undergoing metamorphosis. Sometimes it is not pretty.
Angel’s Notebook by Susan Slusser, San Francisco Chronicle, October 19, 2002.
“Fred Durst: The Next Martin Scorsese?” by Corey Moss MTV.com, Dec 27 2005.
“Interview: Lindsay Stewart”, Papierdoll Fashion Magazine, August 1st, 2005.
“Living Rich: A State of Mind!” by Josef Quiroz, CPA & Marciel Quiroz, 2007.
“Plies finds fame through hip-hop happenstance”, Peoria Journal Star, Oct 01, 2008.
Hey, Mark, that’s a lot of people you’ll have to glare menacingly at!
I consider this a minor-enough instance of the evolving English language as not to be worth fretting over… any more than David’s use of the word “Alas,” which used to be a commonly-used word, now relegated to being dredged out of antiquity just to make a verbal point.
So can we go back to getting “like” out of our every-fourth-word lexicon, please?
Garson, providing examples of people who have used “on accident” does not make it correct!
Yes language changes and evolves but that doesn’t mean we have to just sit back and allow it to be degraded and say it is merely “changing.” “On accident” doesn’t make sense and is gramatically incorrect, so let’s get back to the proper version!