# Intesive purposes? Intents and purposes? etc. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 26, 2001, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893 "2001-02-26T05:15:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![romanticide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@romanticide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romanticide)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/1 "2001-02-26T05:15:37Z")
My good friend and I are having a little argument. I claim it’s “All intents and purposes.” He says “All intesive purposes.” Yet another friend says it’s “All intentional purposes.” I claim I’m right. The other two disagree. I couldn’t find an example of it anywhere, so I thought I’d ask here. So which one is it? ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/2 "2001-02-26T05:20:26Z")
You’re right. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/3 "2001-02-26T05:23:35Z")
So is Montfort. ---
**Author:** ![romanticide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@romanticide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romanticide)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/4 "2001-02-26T05:27:32Z")
I knew it!! “Intensive purposes” never made any sense to me, even though that’s how a lot of people say it. I’d never even heard “intentional purposes”. I’ll be sure to rub it in. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/5 "2001-02-26T05:32:37Z")
This is a pet peeve of mine, actually. I’ve corrected “all intensive purposes” online to so many people that I’m probably starting to get a reputation on certain newsgroups. It just irks me. Badly. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/6 "2001-02-26T06:30:57Z")
As noted above, the common phrase is, “for all _intents and purposes_.” Can you even make sense out of the derivatives? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/7 "2001-02-26T06:54:08Z")
For future reference, you can do a [google](http://www.Google.com) search for the competing phrases. The commonest form is usually (but not always) correct. 79,500 hits for “all intents and purposes” 2,900 hits for “all intensive purposes” 59 hits for “all intentional purposes” 1 hit for “all intensive porpoises” ---
**Author:** ![lesa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/34f0e0/32.png) [@lesa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lesa)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/8 "2001-02-26T10:35:50Z")
Here are some grammer sites to back you up. You’ll want to search for the word “intents” to get down to where it’s mentioned. [http://www.fortunecity.com/bally/durrus/153/gramch26.html](http://www.fortunecity.com/bally/durrus/153/gramch26.html) [http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~brians/errors/errors.txt](http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~brians/errors/errors.txt) [http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~min/Roget/roget1.htm](http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~min/Roget/roget1.htm) [http://wsuonline.weber.edu/wrh/words.htm](http://wsuonline.weber.edu/wrh/words.htm) ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/9 "2001-02-26T12:21:08Z")
**bibliophage** , LMAO thanks for that last one! 😃 Question - Just **why** did you search for it in the first place??? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/10 "2001-02-26T12:23:40Z")
Or, to quote Stephen Fry, “for all in tents and caravans…” I can’t help but be reminded of the argument between Joey and Chandler (yes, I watch _Friends_ – so sue me) over the word **supposably** (“Did they go to the zoo? _Supposably_…”). ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/11 "2001-02-26T15:06:55Z")
**lesa** : > [@](#): > > Here are some grammer sites to back you up. **Grammar** sites. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/12 "2001-02-26T15:22:38Z")
FWIW (and excuse me if the links already tell you this) these have come to be known as “Mondegreens.” There is some poem that has a stanza ending in “And laid him on the green.” This was misheard as “Lady Mondegreen.” When I think of what an “intensive purpose” might be I imagine a horny male teenager in the fifties petting with his girlfriend in the car, desperate to squirm his hand into her sweater. ---
**Author:** ![Luckie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@Luckie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luckie)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2001, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/13 "2001-02-27T05:51:15Z")
— 1 hit for “all intensive porpoises” hehe, will be 2 hits once google gets around to adding this page. Ai what a tangled web we weave. -Luckie ---
**Author:** ![G.Nome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c89c15/32.png) [@G.Nome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.Nome)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2001, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intesive-purposes-intents-and-purposes-etc/55893/14 "2001-02-27T06:22:30Z")
I feel sick. I can’t remember yesterday but I remember when the subject of this thread was also part of an Eight is an Enough episode.