I am rather curious as to the incidence.

[brown_betty]

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Comments

[dracunculus]

No, no, no. I consider myself a descriptive grammarian, but even so. "On accident" is no more formally correct than "ain't". It should be used deliberately in dialect or a certain kind of informal speech, and otherwise not at all.

[brown_betty]

I know, I'm with you. I consider myself a descriptivist, and then "on accident" happens and I'm compelled to flail around, meepling franticly.

[dracunculus]

Ha ha ha!

I feel even more guilty about "can not." I know I'm on the wrong side of history here-I know the language is simply becoming more standardized-and yet. I cannot give up the more efficient, the more beautiful version without some sort of struggle.