I’ve always thought the same, but one day I realized the opposite of ‘by accident’ is ‘on purpose’. They’re both prepositions and nouns, so why couldn’t we say ‘on accident’ and ‘by purpose’? They’re at least grammatically correct if not socially.
I mostly agree, but language is mostly descriptive and we’ve just agreed on these combinations; for now. Also, would just any ol’ preposition do, in your view? Against purpose, over accident? Those are pretty fetch.
I’ve always thought the same, but one day I realized the opposite of ‘by accident’ is ‘on purpose’. They’re both prepositions and nouns, so why couldn’t we say ‘on accident’ and ‘by purpose’? They’re at least grammatically correct if not socially.
Because English is fucking weird
Because prepositional phrases can have distinct definitions from those of the individual words that comprise them.
You have made an enemy today… lol
I mostly agree, but language is mostly descriptive and we’ve just agreed on these combinations; for now. Also, would just any ol’ preposition do, in your view? Against purpose, over accident? Those are pretty fetch.