accident
incident
My life is a lovely story, happy and full of incident.
La mia vita è una storia bellissima, felice e ricca di avvenimenti.
– Hans Christian Andersen
La mia vita è una storia bellissima, felice e ricca di avvenimenti.
– Hans Christian Andersen
✓ James had a skiing accident last weekend. I’m going to visit him in hospital tomorrow.
✗ James had a skiing *incident* last weekend …
James ha fatto un incidente sciando lo scorso weekend. Vado a trovarlo all’ospedale domani.
An accident is unintentional and usually involves physical damage to things or injury to people. It can be a minor accident (for example when you break a glass or cut your finger in the kitchen) or more serious (for example skiing and breaking your leg). Some more examples:
✓ I’m really sorry but your camera has had a little accident. (= the camera is probably broken or at least damaged!)
Mi dispiace tanto ma la tua macchina fotografica ha avuto un piccolo incidente.
✓ There have been several accidents as a result of the snow this morning.
Ci sono stati diversi incidenti a causa della neve stamattina.
An incident is simply a notable event, one which doesn’t “happen every day”. Some examples:
✓ There was an unpleasant incident involving the singer’s bodyguard and one of the paparazzi.(= perhaps an argument, or the bodyguard taking the photographer’s camera and breaking it, not accidentally!)
C’è stato un episodio spiacevole che ha coinvolto la guardia del corpo della cantante e uno dei paparazzi.
✓ The demonstration passed off without incident. (= peacefully; nothing newsworthy happened, the protestors didn’t fight with the police, no damage was done to property, etc.)
La manifestazione si è svolta/conclusa senza incidente.
✓ There were several amusing incidents at John’s wedding, generally alcohol-related! (= perhaps they lost the ring, or the bride had some “trouble” with her wedding dress!)
Ci sono stati diversi episodi divertenti al matrimonio di John, generalmente collegati all’alcol.
Now try the quiz below! There are TEN answers. The pass mark is 90% (9 out of 10). Click on the blue arrows to go to the next or previous question. You can check your answers immediately or when you’ve finished the quiz.