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Tutor Audrey オードリー 's Column

Fun, funny and not funny

May 10, 2018

I have come across some students who misuse the word "funny".  From the students' point of view, if you have "fun" at a party, then the party is "funny", right?  Unfortunately, these 2 words have different meaning.

Fun means  ‘pleasure and enjoyment’:

We had such fun together.

It was fun to go to the beach with Rita’s family.

I hope you have fun!

Spoken English:

In informal speaking, we also use fun as an adjective:

We did a lot of fun activities in groups and individually to learn, have a fun time, and to get to know each other better.

Funny

Funny is an adjective and it means ‘amusing’ or ‘causing laughter’:

 I think Mary is genuinely funny.

I think Jerry Springer is so funny. I just laugh so much when I watch his show.

Funny can also mean ‘strange’, ‘surprising’, ‘unexpected’ or ‘difficult to explain or understand’:

A funny thing happened to me the other day. I was parking my car and a man came and knocked on my window … (A strange/surprising/unexpected thing happened …)

Wasn’t it funny the way Don just got up and left without saying goodbye to anyone? (Wasn’t it strange …)

Typical error

  • We don’t use funny to mean ‘enjoyable’:

The week I stayed in your country was really fun and I found the city where you live very interesting and beautiful.

Not: … in your country was really funny …

This column was published by the author in their personal capacity.
The opinions expressed in this column are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Cafetalk.

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