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Am I wrong in thinking it's wrong?
I know language evolves and teenagers like to put their own spin on it, but one thing that has particularly bugged me is when my daughters and their friends say: 'It's so fun.'
Now that very phrase is being bandied about on a TV advert. The very shock of it!
There must be logic to why it's wrong. Or am I wrong in thinking it's wrong?
Fun is an abstract noun and an adjective. (We had fun. It was a fun time.)
Great is an adjective.
We can say 'It was fun' or 'It was great'.
We can say 'so great' so why is it correct to say 'such fun' rather than 'so fun'?
Sorry if that's all a bit convoluted...
Comments
Looking at the OED, they say it's also used as an adjective in 'we had a fun evening' which is only acceptable in informal use. Americans use it also as fun, funner, funnest - it's being evolved whether it wants it or not. Grates on the ear, doesn't it?
I think the only phrase that grates with me is when someone says "Right, let's crack on," instead of saying "Let's get on with it."
Yes, I can see that, Mrs Bear.
I just wondered if there was a specific grammar rule that backs me up and explains why it should be 'such' fun rather than 'so' fun.
A fun evening is an evening of fun whereas a great evening is not an evening of greatness.
'So' seems to go with adjectives ( so loud , so pretty, so great) and such seems to go with nouns (such fun, such a lovely time, such beauty).
Not a very technical explanation, but that's how it 'feels' to me!
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Yes, heather. I agree. Even though fun can also be an adjective, it's being used as a noun when they say 'so fun' which means it should be 'such fun'. That's it in a nutshell.
Thank you.
those children are meaning to explain that:-
It is so much fun {to do, to achieve, to experience etc.}
Let us just add, "It's so fun" to the list and say no more. Teehee.
Yet I can envisage an English lesson in the distant future where a teacher is talking about deponent verbs (verbs which are passive in form but active in meaning). "Latin had dozens of deponent verbs, but English has only two: sit and stand". I'm sure an awful lot of English that is now acceptable used to be frowned on. I think my generation would have been reprimanded if we had written co-operate without a hyphen, but that seems to be the norm nowadays.
Yet I can envisage an English lesson in the distant future where a teacher is talking about deponent verbs [/quote]
I read that as 'despondent' verbs...;)
This new English survived the generations, becoming part of the African American vernacular, and later spreading to youth culture among blacks and whites through popular media.
As is 'wicked'.
You should have said they were toddlers. We'd be none the wiser!!