Hey, this is quickly!
Which is ok, “this is more fun” or “this is funner”?
Thanks a million!
Only “more fun” is used. People never use “funner”. However I have another question relating this topic:
I’ve read in Mc Millan American English Dictionary for Advanced learner that “fun” can only be used as an attributive, but when I checked it on the BNC, I did find many results in which “fun” is used as a normal adjective. So does the dictionary refer only to American English?
Hi
Take a look at the entry for ‘fun’ as an adjective in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary here: onelook.com/?w=fun&ls=a
You will see that the words ‘funner’ and ‘funnest’ are indeed used occasionally. However, they sound quite informal to me.
Nessie, are you sure that your dictionary stated that the word ‘fun can only be used as an attributive’? :shock:
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Yes, Amy. Here is the whole entry for the word “fun” (adj) in my Mac Millan English Dictionary for Advanced learner of American English:
FUN (adjective) [only before noun]: enjoyable
eg1: scuba diving is a fun thing to do
eg2: a fun day at the zoo
Besides, there is also a notification accompanied with it:
FUNNY is used for talking about something or someone that makes you laugh
=> He told a funny joke
=> She is one of the funniest people I know
=> Don’t laugh; it isn’t funny
FUN is used for talking about something that is enjoyable or someone that you enjoy being with
=> London is a fun city
=> Our day at the beach was really fun
=> My sister is a fun person
:):)
Ok, if it is “more fun”, why couldn’t that be “funner” if it works as an adj.?
It is just one syllable, isn’t? Fun accomplishes the one-two syllable rule, doesn’t it?
Oh, it’s just the matter of language using style, Serzige. You must know that not everything in English goes as the rule.
For example, we say “more right” and “more wrong” but not “righter” or “wronger”.
Or that some speakers use other rules, as in many English dialects.
You’re probably thinking of this one: funn[color=red]ier, but it is the comparative form of “funny”, not “fun”.
Anyway, “fun” is no laughting matter 
Ok guys. I dare you to watch this interview with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker… youtube.com/watch?v=x1Cq6jCwGR0&feature=related
At 00:33 Tucker clearly says,“funner and funner”. So why’s that? Maybe you can enlighten us a little bit more.
Hi Alex
Did you read my first post? And did you look at the Merriam-Webster Dictionary entry for the word ‘fun’? Funner and funnest are indeed used sometimes. However, I personally consider the usage of ‘funner’ and ‘funnest’ to be slang/non-standard.
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Ops, sorry… I thought you wrote “funnier”, but now I see it actually is “funner”.
At first I deemed “funner” wrong on ground that my dictionary failed to recognize it 
It only contains an entry for “funnier”
Ok everything seems great! But nobody has established a period. I just wanna know if it is used as a slang or it is not gramatically correct…Another issue, personally I’ve never heard someone saying “this is more right” or “this is more wrong”, for me those phrases are redundant. Instead of those I’d use expressions like “this is better or worse” and that’s it…Probably I’m wrong…
thanks!
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I would not use ‘funner’ or funnest’ in a formal context, if that’s what you want to know.
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I’d would like nessy to look at this!
Sergio, here is what I want to tell you: English knowledge is like an ocean, and do you think you can swim across the ocean? The fact that you have never heard someone say “more right” or “more wrong” doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t exist. I just wonder what can make you so self-confident to think so…
For your information, here is examples from the BNC about the usage of “more wrong”:
sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/sa … more+wrong
And here are some more examples for “more right” (also from the BNC):
- Don’t you think that’s more right judgement?
- You see you couldn’t be more right.
- This does not mean however that some valuations are not more right than others; appreciating at least the following practical points will help make sure that our valuations are `;more right’; than not:
- Here, like this, it’s never been more right.
- Couldn’t be more right, except that
By the way, it’s “Nessie”, not “nessy”
P.S: Last but not least, I myself think it is extremely not polite to open a thread of asking questions by saying “Hey, this is quickly!”
And, it is surely not polite to say this to our kind dedicated teachers here: "Ok guys. I dare you to watch this interview with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker… "
You’d better be more careful with your words!
OK NESSIE! Believe what you want to believe. Since I’ve been writing in here nobody has complained about the way I greet. Not even Teachers, so why do you?
What I perceive here is an offensive air. So, if I did offend you somehow, well I do apologise. But you don’t have to be a toady person (look the statement that I highlighted above) and make me look bad in front of everybody else. Was it clear?
P.S: If you add a link make sure it is working…that way everybody can see what you’re talking about.
[color=red]Haha, there’s no need for you to get so angry like that, Sergio :lol: now let me answer your feedbacks one by one:
OK NESSIE! Believe what you want to believe
[color=red]=> I do, of course => no need to tell me!
Since I’ve been writing in here nobody has complained about the way I greet. Not even Teachers, so why do you?
[color=red]=> They don’t tell you, of course not! However, that doesn’t mean they don’t feel vexed by the way you are. They are just too kind to speak out. Do you think they will bother to give comments to such triffles?
What I perceive here is an offensive air.
[color=red]=> Oh, if you think so, why are you still here? (By the way, what I perceive from you is an ungrateful impolite person)
So, if I did offend you somehow, well I do apologise
[color=red]=> No need to apologize me, I’m used to such kind of people!
But you don’t have to be a toady person (look the statement that I highlighted above) and make me look bad in front of everybody else. Was it clear?
[color=red]=> Hahaha!!! This is so ridiculous! You are childish beyond the words, Sergio. Actually I told you those things not because I tried to please the teachers (If you don’t realize it, I joint this forum earlier than you did, and I know about the teachers here more then you do: they DON’T EVER need such flatteries as your childish mind may think!) I told you those simply because of these two reasons:
- Seeing your impolite way of expressing yourself, I’m sure you’re going to get little or no help (believe me! I’m very very much experienced in that) so I just tell you so that you change your own way and so that in the future, you’ll get help more quickly and easily, but you, with your childish mind, just think that I want to make you look bad. That’s so ridiculous!!! :lol:
- The second, and most important reason for my being a little bit nosy: I love the teachers here and I just want you to have more decent behaviours towards them in the future (REMEMBER that they are giving their TIME and KNOWLEDGE and EFFORT to you FOR FREE!!!) but you, with your childish mind, think that I was trying to flatter them? haha!!! How ridiculous, too! :lol:
P.S: If you add a link make sure it is working…that way everybody can see what you’re talking about.
[color=red]=> The link is absolutely and perfectly all right. Give your own pc a check before getting mad at me! :lol: :lol:
Don’t bother me with all that, don’t tell me stories NESSIE. If you consider yourself such a kind and polite person, why do you write such a big message explaining every thing I’ve mentioned in my last post with a sarcastic style? Needless to say, I didn’t ask for it. Plus, I don’t think phrases that I higlighted from your last post can come from a mature person which is self-contradictory(regarding politeness)…It is sad to say, but I want you to think about things you said. Because all you have showed me with this is such arrogance that I don’t have a civil word to say about you.
P.S:Why do you have to speak on behalf of the teachers?
Calm down Sergio, from the beginning you’re so prejudiced against me because you think I wanted to make you look bad. I can understand that. However, as stated above, I have no such intention. Anyway if you are bothered by it that much, then ok, it’s all my fault, I’m sorry, happy now? Actually I don’t want to make a fuss over triffles because this is a public forum, so one more time: this is all my fault, so let’s stop arguing here
P.S: LASTLY, I just want to say that I DON’T EVER DARE to speak ON BEHALF OF the TEACHERS, Sergio. I don’t think I have the right to do so, I just stated my OWN idea
I’ve enjoyed this dialogue, minus the flaming that started.
I am a native english speaker studying for my M.A. in TESOL. Today, I had an interesting experience in an ESL lab. It had to do with breaking the one syllable “rule” for comparative forms. The word was “blue” and it seemed more right to me to say “more blue.” Bluer just sounds funny. The other example I came up with was “shyer.” I wouldn’t say He is shyer than her. I would say more shy.
Interestingly, many of the other people working in this ESL lab are not native speakers. One older lady, who was sort of a lead assistant, really went off on me about using more blue instead of bluer. Her example was, just because you’ve heard it said that way doesn’t make it right. She said, English learners and native speakers alike say “John and her really like each other.”
Her point was that even though “her” is not in the subjective form “she” like it is suppose to be, people still say it. But I don’t think that is the case here with the funner issue. I confidently explained to her that language is not a static entity. It is slowly changing, and has been for thousands of years. There are generally exceptions to hard and fast rules.
What I find so interesting is this simple question leads to a much larger idea. Prescriptivism. What really determines what is “proper”? Someone writing a book? A linguistic description? Mob rule?
For as long as I can remember, I was corrected when saying “funner” by my dad (who was an English Teacher.) I can also understand how an English learner “wants an answer” as to why the exception breaks the rule, but language learning is not math. Language, although it has structural properties, it does vary from them often. Was the great vowel shift that now confuses so many Spanish speakers learning English an example of how the whole world is now speaking non-standard English? No, I think there’s a bigger idea here, one that doesn’t have “an answer” yet. Not having an answer is not the same as something being “wrong”. I think the act of explaining something creates answers, and this is not the same was right, wrong, or truth. This is the type of thing theses are written about. As a matter of fact, I think I’m going to search for journal articles on this topic.