The Grammar Behind “Very Fun”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Tom from Dayton, New Jersey.

Hello, Tom. What’s going on?

Not too much.

I’m calling because of a friendly argument that I had with a friend of mine concerning a phrase that she used.

Well, the first time I heard it was probably about 13, 14 years ago. I was leaving a concert with a date, and she exclaimed, that was very fun.

I kind of did a twitch, you know. It didn’t sound right. The combination of very and fun.

So I didn’t say anything. The relationship was blossoming.

So I got together with some friends from Michigan at another friend’s birthday party out in Ohio. And she was describing some of the activities that she’d been into, and she said, and it was very fun.

And at this point in time, I didn’t hold back. So that old scab came off the wound and started…

Exactly right. All that pent-up emotion, you know, the emotional scar was being vented.

So I said, you can’t say that. And she said, can’t say what?

I said, you can’t modify fun with very. And she said, well, why not?

Of course, I hate that question because basically I don’t know why. I mean, it’s a gut feeling. It doesn’t sound right.

And I understand what they’re saying. Is it because they’re using it in such a trite way?

Well, no, it could be very little fun, or it could be very great fun. And it’s a shorthand, and I understand that whatever they did was pretty much high on the funometer, you know?

So it seems that it should be very much fun, or very great fun, or very little fun. I can’t see very and fun going together.

I see very funny, but that means something completely different.

Exactly, Tom. I know exactly what you’re talking about here. We were taught that fun was a noun, but you know what happened in the 1950s and the 1960s?

Fun took off as an adjective. And so people like Grant probably don’t mind saying things like, oh, that was so fun.

Or, Tom, you’re the funnest caller we ever had. Would you be down with that, Grant?

I wouldn’t say it like a dork, but yeah, I could say that.

Well, you know, when you guys go back to your sticks-in-the-mud class reunion or whatever it is that you learned this stuff, just remember that some of us are keeping up and some of us aren’t.

Well, Tom, I tell you what, fun actually is a very interesting word in that it’s what we call a noun of emotion.

I mean, think about it. I could say, Tom, it’s a pleasure talking with you. It’s been pleasant talking with you.

But I can’t say it’s been a fun talking with you or I can’t say it’s been funny talking to you because funny, the adjective there doesn’t really work.

You see, as something coming out of fun, it’s kind of a different idea. My point here is that I think that younger folks like Grant have sort of keyed in on another hole in the language.

I mean, we sort of do need to find some other way to say that was a blast. You know, I was thinking about this.

Should I really, really let something like this make me twitch? Because, you know, the language kind of changes over time, of course.

And it’s just, you know, when youngsters like Grant use the thing, I just have to remember that they’re of a different generation.

Right, they’re still green. And, you know, I just kind of have to swallow it, which, you know, as Janet, my Brit girlfriend, would say, take a stiff upper lip with this thing, buddy.

There’s one last point I think that needs to be made here, which is kind of a little more serious. But as somebody who tries to be careful about his language, though God knows I make enough mistakes on the air, I’m aware of the fact that some people have a problem with fun as an adjective, and I try not to use it in those situations where it might make me look bad.

And that’s one thing. That’s about a lot of language kind of falls in that category. There are things that you can say, and there are things that you should say, and there are things that you shouldn’t say.

And the three, somewhere in the three, you just got to remember to address your audience properly.

So, Tom, when Grant is talking to old fogies like us, he’s going to control his…

No, if you’re coming out of a Doobie Brothers concert in the 1970s and you want to say that something was very fun, that’s fine.

Well, it was Simon and Garfunkel, but I understand where you’re coming from.

Well, hey, Tom, this has been a lot of fun. I just want to say thank you for the great, fun radio show.

Thanks, Tom.

Thank you, Tom.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Okay, Grant. So I think the bottom line here is that very fun is a casualism. Maybe we wouldn’t use it in formal writing, but we do need to find a way to have more fun and describe it, no?

I think that what’s going to happen is that fun as an adjective is going to be perfectly acceptable within 30 years or so.

So if I want the grammatical equivalent of a facelift, I should start using it right now.

Yeah, you could do that. It could just say chullacks all the time.

That sounds like fun.

Well, if you want to have some fun with us on the air, give us a call. The number is 1-877-929-9673 or email us at words@waywordradio.org.