Time for some fun.

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Fred - 29 Jun 2009 07:58 GMT

It was so fun.
It was so much fun.
Which is correct?

Reply to this Message

Dr Peter Young - 29 Jun 2009 22:14 GMT

> It was so fun.
> It was so much fun.
> Which is correct?

The latter. You could also say, "It was such fun".

With best wishes,

Peter.

Signature

Peter Young, (BrE), Consultant Anaesthetist, 1975-2004.
(US equivalent: Attending Anesthesiologist)
Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK. Now happily retired.
http://pnyoung.orpheusweb.co.uk

Reply to this Message

James Silverton - 29 Jun 2009 22:35 GMT

Dr wrote on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:14:48 +0100:

>> It was so fun.
>> It was so much fun.
>> Which is correct?

> The latter. You could also say, "It was such fun".

Of course, if you were a teenager, you might well say the first. Fun is
used by them as an adjective too.

Signature

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

Reply to this Message

Eric Walker - 29 Jun 2009 23:31 GMT

[...]

> Of course, if you were a teenager, you might well say the first. Fun is
> used by them as an adjective too.

I believe that the colloquial use of "fun" as an adjective goes back
rather further than modern teenagers--recalling such slogans as "a fun
time".

Signature

Cordially,
Eric Walker, Owlcroft House
http://owlcroft.com/english/

Reply to this Message

Mark Brader - 30 Jun 2009 04:36 GMT

"Fred" asked us about:

| It was so fun.
| It was so much fun.

Everyone agrees that the second one is correct.

James Silverton adds:

>> Of course, if you were a teenager, you might well say the first.
>> Fun is used by them as an adjective too.

> I believe that the colloquial use of "fun" as an adjective goes back
> rather further than modern teenagers--recalling such slogans as "a fun
> time".

I agree that it's common informal usage to treat "fun" as an adjective;
however, it tends to be an incomparable one. Many people who would
happily say "a fun time" would not say "a very fun time" or "we had a
more fun time today than yesterday". "It was so fun" has similar
implications of comparison, so some people will object to it too.

There's another possible reading of "If was so fun", and that's the
one where "so", emphasized along with the verb, is used by way of
contradicting an emphasized "not". That is, "It *was so* fun" could
simply mean "It *was* fun", uttered in contradiction of someone else's
claim that it was *not* fun. I associate this usage specifically with
small children. (And since I rarely encounter them today, I don't
really know if it's still a current usage.)

Signature

Mark Brader, Toronto | "You often seem quite gracious, in your way."
msb@vex.net | --Steve Summit

My text in this article is in the public domain.

Reply to this Message

Jeffrey Turner - 30 Jun 2009 01:15 GMT

> It was so fun.
> It was so much fun.
> Which is correct?

Either.

--Jeff

Signature

The comfort of the wealthy has always
depended upon an abundant supply of
the poor. --Voltaire

Reply to this Message

Discussion Groups / English Usage / June 2009

Time for some fun.