accident
1. accident通常指偶然发生的不幸事件，incident通常指任何不很重要的事件。如被电车撞倒是accident，在电车上碰到多年不见的老朋友是incident。在外交和政治上往往用incident指可能引起战事的“事件”，如border incident。
2. accident单独用指“偶然”，不指“不幸”，如She was twenty when accident brought her to the notice of the great author和That was merely a matter of accident。by accident作“偶然地”解，并没有“不幸”的意思。（by accident的反义表达方式是by design或on purpose。）
3. 说“某人或某物遭到的不幸事件”，在指人或物的词的前面用to，如There was an accident to the little boy和Owing to an accident to the machines one department was closed down。
4. He has met with an accident作“他死了”解，She had an accident 作“她未结婚而生了孩子”解。这都是婉转的说法。
5. accident后面偶尔接以that引导的从句。例如：His absence was due to the accident that the letter asking him to come had gone astray.
6. accident有时指“偶然成功的人或事”，如a political accident是“一个不靠本领而适逢其会地成功的政界人物”。Her Spanish is an accident of living with a Spanish family for a year是“她的西班牙语是因为跟一个西班牙家庭住了一年而偶然学得的”。
