Language Activator – Accidentally

Accidentally / by accident / Accidental / by mistake / Unintentionally

accidentally/by accident

(adverb)

.I accidentally burnt a hole in her sofa with my cigarette

completely by accident also quite by accident

.I met the man quite by accident, and we began a conversation

Accidental

(adjective)

:happening without being planned or intended

an accidental discharge of toxic waste

purely accidental

completely accidental

.They believe that miscalculations made on the tax forms were purely accidental

By mistake

(adverb)

if you do something by mistake, you intend to do one thing, but you accidentally do something else instead

.Gary wandered into the wrong hotel room by mistake

mistakenly

(adverb)

if you mistakenly do something, you intend to do one thing, but you accidentally do something else instead, especially because you are confused

.A handful of people die each year from mistakenly eating poisonous fungi

not mean to do something

(verb phrase not in progressive)

especially spoken to do something accidentally – use this especially when expressing the idea that you are sorry for something that you have done, or when you think you are being unfairly blamed for something

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings

be an accident

if you say that something was an accident, you mean that you are sorry it happened, but it was not done deliberately

.Marris told the police the killing was an accident

Unintentionally

(adverb)

if you do something unintentionally, especially something bad, you do it even though you do not intend to do it

.Several scenes in the movie are unintentionally funny

unintended/unintentional

(adjective)

use this about something you do without intending to, especially something that annoys, upsets, or causes problems for someone else

One originally unintended consequence of the discussions was the setting up of an official inquiry into the department’s funding

:Practice

:Fill in the blanks with appropriate words

    ._________N1. The senator apologized, saying any offense his remarks had caused had been completely

.N2. Teachers often ————–favor certain students

.N3. The advertisement —————–offended Scottish people

. —————-  N4. Don’t blame yourself – it was

.N5. The crew had ————shut down the engine, and the plane went out of control

.N6. I’m sure he didn’t ———to yell at you – he was just angry

.N7. Sorry folks, I don’t ———to interrupt your dinner

.———— N8. Michelle must have picked up my keys by

.N9. I opened this by———–, Paula, but I think it’s for you – sorry

.———— N10. She touched his elbow so timidly that he thought it must have been

.N11. An 11-month-old baby died after ——————swallowing several of the tablets

N12. Fleming discovered the drug by————-, when he was researching something else

.N13. If we’ve offended you in some way, we didn’t ———–to

:Answers

Unintentional/ unintentionally/ unintentionally/ an accident/Mistakenly/ mean/ mean/ mistake/ mistake/ accidental/ accidentally/ accident/ mean