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Want even more deets on prepositions? Take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
Transcript
- 00:01
Prepositions, a la Shmoop. The English language is weird, especially
- 00:09
when it comes to prepositions. Why do you say “I'm at Starbucks” instead of “I'm
- 00:14
in Starbucks”?
- 00:15
Why do you say “I'm in bed” instead of “I'm on bed”?
- 00:20
It's not like you're the stuffing in the mattress. Two phrases that are particularly screwy are
Full Transcript
- 00:26
“by accident” and “on accident”.
- 00:30
In our neck of the woods… “the United States”, in case you weren’t sure… “by
- 00:34
accident” is most commonly used by people over the age of thirty-five.
- 00:40
Folks between the ages of ten and thirty-five use both “by accident” and “on accident”...
- 00:44
...and kids under the age of ten prefer “on accident”.
- 00:47
Also, they’re the most likely ones to have… an accident.
- 00:53
Imagine how frustrating it must be if you're an English teacher over the age of thirty-five.
- 00:57
You want your students to use “by accident” when they write...
- 01:00
...as in, “Peter rear-ended the BMW with his jalopy by accident”...
- 01:04
...but many of your students have grown up saying “on accident”...
- 01:07
“Peter rear-ended the BMW with his jalopy on accident.”
- 01:12
Who knows why younger Americans prefer “on accident” to “by accident”.
- 01:15
Is it because “on accident” parallels “on purpose”, and young people like their
- 01:19
grammar neat and tidy?
- 01:20
Or, have millions of young people seen something on TV that all the old fogeys missed?
- 01:25
Come on, Bill Gates, throw some money at this so we can have an answer.
- 01:30
Whatever the reasons behind our odd use of prepositions, most of us are guided by the
- 01:34
little voice in our head that tells us a particular preposition either sounds right...
- 01:39
...as in, “John suffered from a serious case of the runs”...
- 01:42
...or sounds wrong...
- 01:44
...as in, “John suffered with a serious case of the runs”.
- 01:51
As for those folks who aren't native English speakers...
- 01:53
...and therefore lack a tiny English-speaking shoulder angel...
- 01:56
...well, you'll always have these videos to turn to for help.
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