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*by accident. On accident grates like nails on a blackboard. It's like saying by purpose.
Nails *by a blackboard
I did that for purpose
The Lord's work.
…but did it not happen via purpose?
They pluralize 'e-mail' with an S. But I admire your tenacity.
👏👏👏
They're baffled by steam, do you really expect them to use proper grammar?
It sure looked like smoke.
As someone who grew up in the commonwealth, I can't remember ever hearing it as "by accident". I'll keep that in mind.
As someone who also grew up in the commonwealth, I can’t remember ever hearing anyone say “on accident”. And it seems that “on accident” is grammatically wrong (not that we all have to speak with perfect grammar, but just pointing it out). I’m sure I’ll get downvoted for this but whatever. “On accident” also grated at me lol.
I upvoted you on/by accident. There.
I just upvoted you by purpose. There. Sounds weird, right?
Honestly, all of the examples in your link sort of has me feeling it; it's certainly not any less consistent.
On accident definitely still works. I've heard it plenty times.
Turns out English grammar has always been an ever changing thing and different regions that speak it, speak it differently. All that matters is that the recipient understood you. You knowing the "correct" grammar means that they succeeded in that, so it's fine.
Do you read shakespeare and critique him on his grammar? Do you critique a Geordie on their grammar for speaking like everyone else they grew up around? English is a great language where there is no ONE way to speak or write it, so don't perpetuate that myth of proper grammar. That's just formal grammar, a product of the posh cunts that wanted to differentiate from the working class.
Ah, the siren song of the ill-educated
If you ever took an English language class you'd learn that this is essentially 90% of the course with it focusing on various different dialects of English with MLE and pidgin usually being the main focuses to drive this point.
English [Simplified], perchance?
😂
British English
Nope.
Clearly never took an English language class then.
I did. Quite a few. Even taught a couple.
Here's the thing. You aren't entirely wrong.
Language can be studied and taught in two distinct ways.
There's prescriptive language, which teaches, "this is how language should be used".
And there's descriptive language, which teaches, "this is how language is actually used".
You are clearly leaning into the latter there, and that is fine. However, it does miss the point that for effective and articulate communication, rules are pretty useful.
Think of it like a programming language where you have to be very specific around syntax to get the exact thing you want.
Obviously, spoken and written English is far more forgiving. In fact we can say something really specific without saying it at all due to cultural and situational inference.
But prescriptive English forms a baseline for effective communication across what should be the broadest scope of a population.
Anyway, "on accident" is an Americanism. Thought to exist because of a conflation of "on purpose". If anything this conflation is an attempt to enforce a rule, to make language more prescriptive than allowing for the differences in "by" and "on".
Now, let's deal with that jibe in your comment that I never took English class.
Class.
You talk about the working class. Then you talk about prescriptive language and being all cool with that. Then you seek to belittle me by undermining my education. You say that the correct way of speaking is for posh people yet you criticise my understanding of language.
That would make you a hypocrite, wouldn't it?
You could've just replied "Wank", Adam
aLl tHaT mATTerS iS the reCiPieNT unDeRStAnDs yOu
😂
Excellent use of language.
Fair points, I was judgemental in the way I said it all, I apologise. Seems like were mostly on the same page though and you do understand my point a lot and yeah I do think descriptive is way more important than prescriptive, even more so on a social media platform.