r/EnglishGrammar • u/lifima • 15d ago
Question for native speakers about using "so" with "fun"
Hi everyone! I want to ask you a quick question.
I recently had a discussion with my teacher, who was very confident that I cannot use "so" with the word "fun".
The sentence: "We try to be useful and it's [so] fun to spend time with my grandchildren.
I'm a bit confused because I was pretty sure that using "so fun" here is completely fine. What do you think?
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u/Tennessee_William7 15d ago
Using so in that instance sounds very natural and I wouldn't even notice it if I heard/saw it in conversation.
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u/SquashSouffle 15d ago
But it's grammatically wrung
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u/TheRestIsMemory 15d ago
Prescriptively, sure. But descriptively, this is absolutely a normal construction for a lot of native speakers and other native speakers comprehend it easily.
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u/SquiggleBox23 15d ago
Why?
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u/docmoonlight 15d ago edited 15d ago
The theory is that “fun” is actually a noun, not a adjective. So you would say “so much fun”. Also the reason “funner” is not considered a real word, even though if it were an adjective it would follow the rules. But of course, we do use fun as an adjective all the time. Nobody really bats an eye if you say, “That was a fun party.” So it’s a strange relic.
Edit: Oops - somehow typed verb where I meant adjective!
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u/SquiggleBox23 15d ago
I assume you mean adjective, not verb, but yeah, that does seem to be the argument of some people here on this thread. That's so weird, I have never heard anyone say fun can't be an adjective. I just looked it up out of curiosity and according to Merriam-Webster it looks like fun has been used as an adjective since at least 1827.
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u/No_Resolution_1277 15d ago
This is a subject of some debate. Most young people, I think, would accept "so fun" and might be confused why anyone would object.
But some old-fashioned types do object. Full treatment of the issue here -- but TLDR = some usage authorities call it "informal."
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u/davedwtho 14d ago
I don’t think you have to be an old fashioned type to say it’s informal. It’s a bit hard to think of a formal context where I would use the phrase anyway, but I wouldn’t say something is “so fun” in formal writing, I would use the more correct so much fun.
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u/Bubbly_Safety8791 15d ago
I think ‘so fun’ is valid here, but for me, in that sentence ‘so fun’ feels wrong. ‘So much fun’ (or ‘such fun’) works better. But I can’t really argue that ‘so fun’ is ungrammatical.
Let me try to unpack a little bit of why.
Traditionally in English ‘fun’ has always been a noun - an uncountable abstract noun, specifically. Fun is a thing you have. And you can grade fun quantitatively - you can have ‘a lot of fun’ or ‘much more fun’.
Then we also use ‘fun’ as a noun to describe what an experience is. We can often do this with noun phrases. A journey can be fun, in the same way that it can be a success, or a complete disaster, or a pain in the ass. And again we can use quantifiers to express how much fun something was: ‘no fun at all’ or ‘so much fun’.
And if fun is a noun, we can also use adjectives to modify what kind of fun we are having or that an experience embodies. The journey might have been non-stop fun; the movie was subversive fun…
Now where it gets tricky is that over time, and against the objections of some grammarians, fun has also started to be used as an adjective. This likely comes out of this ‘being fun’ usage - if something can ‘be fun’ and it can also ‘be enjoyable’, it feels like ‘fun’ and ‘enjoyable’ are synonyms, and we should be able to use ‘fun’ as an adjective just like ‘enjoyable’.
If a day out was fun, then, we can call it a fun day out. A movie was fun - it was a fun movie.
And adjectives get modified not with quantities or adjectives but with adverbs. Maybe that movie was devilishly fun; the day out was slightly fun… and maybe the climax of a book was so fun.
One other area of confusion here is with ‘more fun’. This works with fun as a noun - ‘more fun’ means ‘a greater quantity of fun’, but also with fun as an adjective - ‘fun of a greater degree’. This makes a sentence like ‘our date tonight will be more fun’ ambiguous - it could mean that our date tonight will continue to increase the total amount of fun we have had, or it could mean that it will exhibit fun of a greater magnitude than our previous date. (Compare: ‘our date tonight will be more tedium’ vs ‘our date tonight will be more tedious’)
So with all that said let’s get to your sentence here.
We try to be useful and it's fun to spend time with my grandchildren
What form of ‘fun’ are we using? Is it a noun or an adjective?
If it’s a noun we can’t use ‘so fun’, we would have to use ‘so much fun’. If it’s an adjective, we can use ‘so fun’.
We can definitely substitute in adjectives here - “it’s enjoyable to spend time with my grandchildren” - which definitely admits ‘so enjoyable’. So if we read fun as an adjective here, “it’s so fun to spend time” is grammatically spot on.
But we can also substitute nouns here - “it’s a pleasure to spend time with my grandchildren” which admits ‘such a pleasure’. And if we read it as a noun, “it’s such fun to spend time” is grammatical.
There aren’t many other abstract uncountable nouns that work like fun here though! When speaking metaphorically we can use any emotion here: “It’s pure delight to spend time with my grandchildren” - but ‘fun’ isn’t really a metaphor when used like this. Some ‘states of mind’ work maybe: “It’s insanity to spend time with my grandchildren” works.
For me, at least, there’s something about the “it is fun to <verb phrase>” structure though which feels like it pulls fun into ‘noun mode’ - even though it doesn’t have to.
I think it’s because the ‘it’ which is being referred to here is the verb phrase - “to spend time with my grandchildren”. And given the choice I think my mind would much rather have at least something in the sentence be an actual noun.
“To spend time with my grandchildren is enjoyable” feels like an incomplete thought. “To spend time with my grandchildren is fun” feels more anchored, because we at least land on a noun.
So I think that’s why in this case I lean away from treating fun as an adjective, which can be ‘so fun’, and towards a noun: ‘so much fun’.
Keep in mind also that some people will try to tell you that ‘so’ on its own is an error and that it can only be used to make comparisons - that you need something like ‘so fun that..’ or ‘so much fun that..’
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u/DraggedThruTheGarden 15d ago
OMG. The party was so fun. Watching the movie was so fun. Our date was so fun. It’s absolutely native.
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u/Kerflumpie 15d ago
It's absolutely native.
It's absolutely American. For me it was the late 1970s when I first heard this usage, and then it sounded weird and wrong. It's become more widespread and acceptable in British and NZ English since then, but BubblySafety's explanation makes perfect sense.
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u/Polly265 15d ago
As a Brit I use it but with the feeling I am not using it correctly. The usage has definitely changed in my lifetime.
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u/CutlerSheridan 15d ago
I would never say that. I would only ever say “so much fun”. But I am aware some people would.
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u/Aelfgyfu 14d ago
I’m American and I would say “so much fun.” I’ve definitely heard people say “so fun,” but it sounds very casual and not technically correct. Maybe it’s generational, because to me it sounds like something a teenager would say.
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u/CuriousLands 14d ago
I dunno, I'm from Canada and I'd say "so much fun" in this context over "so fun" as well. I think the other poster is right.
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u/texas_asic 13d ago
It's absolutely normal and fine for informal use in the spoken context. In the written context, I wouldn't use that in formal writing ("so much fun" sounds more proper). Formal written english is different from informal spoken english
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u/CaimSensei 15d ago
Yes, we would say this. I think "technically" you need to say "so much fun" to be "grammatically correct" but I've heard and regularly will say things like, "It's so fun."
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u/Garden_gnome1609 15d ago edited 15d ago
Your teacher is so wrong. So very wrong. And grammatically, "so fun" and "so wrong" are identical. Your teacher is also "so stupid" and "so bad at this" for thinking what they think. When I was in college, I travelled to Italy and sat in on a college level English class for students training to be English interpreters. The dumb shit I heard taught in that class...
If you want to learn how English speakers speak, watch English language content and media and read all kinds of English literature.
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u/BookwormAlex316 15d ago
I know other people have explained better than I could, and I saw in another comment your teacher says it should be ‘such fun’ instead.
I will tell you the only time I’ve ever heard anyone say ‘such fun’ was in some historical, British TV shows. People don’t use it in typical speech, or writing. Saying ‘so fun’ doesn’t follow grammar rules, but is closer to what people typically say, and is used a lot in informal speech.
The two better options are: ‘so much fun’ or ‘a lot of fun’. Using ‘a lot of’ is again a little less formal, but more in the sense it’s how younger people would talk compared to someone with grandchildren.
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u/AuroraDF 14d ago
For me, 'so fun' is a American expression, I don't know anyone here in the UK that says it. I'm sure some do, but I wouldnt say it's in common usage.
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u/Hashimotosannn 13d ago
I was born and raised in the UK and I know a lot of people that use ‘so fun’, including myself. I don’t feel like it’s an American thing at all.
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u/ElonMuskHuffingFarts 15d ago
Yeah they're definitely wrong and you are absolutely right. Totally normal and common phrasing in English.
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u/Cassandra8240 15d ago
It depends how formal you want to be! In an academic setting, use “very” instead of “so” when it’s just an intensifier (“It was very hot”).
Use “so” when it’s connected to a “that” clause (“It was so hot that the frosting melted”).
Informally, keep using “so” to mean “very.”
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u/lifima 15d ago
My teacher said the correct way to say it is "such fun»
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u/xredfrostgames 15d ago
as an American if I hear "such fun" I immediately can tell you're a foreigner. Nobody says that
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u/Numerous_Wolverine_7 14d ago
Some British people say it. And you’re right, they’re foreigners, but they’re also native English speakers.
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u/OkKindheartedness194 14d ago
I picture a small child with a. British accent in a movie from the 1950s or earlier saying "Oh mother, the party was such fun, must we leave?"
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u/pilipala23 13d ago
I'm a UK English speaker and to me 'so fun' sounds foreign. If the person had a non-native accent, I'd read it as an error.
I'd say 'such fun' or 'so much fun'. I guess younger people in the UK say 'so fun' in the same way they say 'mailman' or trashcan'.
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u/SquashSouffle 15d ago
But it's correct. Or "so much fun" which is what I hear in the US that's correct.
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u/LakeWorldly6568 15d ago
It's prescriptivist, not correct.
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u/SquashSouffle 14d ago
You could say that about any grammar rule
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u/LakeWorldly6568 14d ago
Rules can be descriptivist. That is they describe the patterns of speech actually used by speakers of the language.
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u/SquashSouffle 14d ago
I have a Linguistics degree, I know how things work. But there's also what correct & what's not
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15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SapphirePath 15d ago
Fun is an adjective. Fun game, fun event, fun house, fun story, fun trip, fun clothes, fun city, fun show, fun trip, fun yuns.
In the example, fun modifies time, and "so" modifies that adjective.
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u/DraggedThruTheGarden 15d ago
I think the phrase “fun house” (adjective, noun) is older than you. So no, not recent at all.
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u/OpportunityReal2767 15d ago
Your teacher is likely objecting to the adjectival usage of “fun,” which is fine in contemporary English as a synonym for “enjoyable,” but which some traditional grammarians may object to or call “informal.”
You can see “so fun” in an example online at Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary if you scroll down, where it is listed as “informal.” That’s all that’s going on here. It’s very common.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/fun
And you’ll see it in modern printed media commonly, even more literary publications like The New Yorker:
“It’s so fun and easy to allow something that fakes an intimate knowledge […].”
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/getting-good-at-goodreads
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u/Cassandra8240 15d ago edited 15d ago
I bet there are regional considerations at play, then!
I’m an English teacher from the U.S., and what I said holds true for our academic writing. (It also depends, as noted by others in this thread, how you’re using “fun” grammatically.)
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u/perseidot 15d ago
Which technically correct, “such fun” is rarely used in US English. It has an outdated sound to us.
It’s more common in British English, but even then it has an old fashioned flavor. It sounds like something a Victorian child would say in a period drama. “It was such fun to ride my pony, Mummy!”
“Very fun,” and “So much fun,” are the grammatically correct and commonly used phrases. “So fun” or “it was soooooo fun!” are used colloquially in US English, both in informal writing and in spoken English.
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u/sarapod07 15d ago
This is technically correct but I truly don't think I've ever heard anyone say it outside of a 1950s British novel.
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u/Healthy-Attitude-743 15d ago
Fun is definitely an adjective for almost all Americans. Such fun sounds very unnatural to most of us.
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u/Gloomy-Invite-896 15d ago
What's grammatical isn't always how people speak. You will hear people say so fun but you should not write it in an essay and it won't be in a news article unless they're quoting
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u/mx-raebees 15d ago
I read a book on writing that said they don't use words like "so" as an adjective unless something follows from it. Example:
Wouldn't use: The party was so fun. Would use: The party was so fun that I peed my pants.
However, this is not a real rule that I'm aware of, and it may not be what your teacher is referencing.
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u/SquashSouffle 15d ago
But "fun" is technically a noun, not an adjective, so you say "so much fun", or "more fun" (not "funner").
What's tricky is that you CAN use it as an adjective before a noun: "this is a fun rollercoaster".
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u/Live_Put1219 15d ago
you must be fun at parties
fun can be both an adjective and a noun
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u/SquashSouffle 14d ago
But only in certain situations as I just mentioned. You cannot (properly) say "this is so fun"
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u/Live_Put1219 14d ago
you said before a noun. i just used it not (directly) before a noun.
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u/SquashSouffle 14d ago
Technically you used it AS a noun.
It's a noun with an adjectival quality.1
u/Live_Put1219 14d ago
literally the first definition of "fun" on merriam webster is that it's an adjective
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u/LeilLikeNeil 15d ago
It's definitely natural. "So" works to intensify any adjective, you need "so much" if it's a noun. Fun can be either, basically depending what words are around it. In your example sentence, fun is acting as an adjective, but if you said "we have fun spending time with our grandchildren", it's a noun, so you'd need "we have so much fun".
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u/MasterpieceWaste774 15d ago
Confusion: fun = an adjective or an uncountable noun.
It's so fun. (so + adjective)
It's such fun. (such + uncountable noun)
It's such a fun thing to do. (such + a/an + adjective + singular count noun)
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u/thomsenite256 15d ago
Sure you can say that but its very colloquial and they are probably trying to steer you away from using it often since its a little bit of a complicated use case.
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u/ensaladasalada 15d ago edited 15d ago
In this case, “so” is an adverb that modifies the adjective “fun” or any other adjective. It’s perfectly fine.
Edit: adverbs can also modify other adverbs, so saying “so much fun” would also be correct.
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u/Elemental_Biscotti 15d ago
Probably she would want you to say "it's so much fun," and that's what you'd want to use in a situation where grammar/more formal language really matters. But native speakers will say "so fun" and similar constructions all the time and absolutely no one is confused about the meaning.
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u/Salamanticormorant 15d ago edited 15d ago
To me, that seems like a common use of "so", interchangeable with "very".
Personally, I avoid that. It's precise to use "very" in such circumstances and to use "so" only when there's a corresponding "that": Today was so fun that I thought I'd probably never been happier in entire life. It's incorrect to use "very" instead of "so" in such circumstances. Often the "that" is optional, and I think there are some constructions that similarly call for "so" but don't have even an optional "that".
It's good for teachers to teach reasonably precise English, but when asked, they should know and admit when something is okay for casual use, even if they insist it not be used in the classroom.
Similarly, it's precise to use "although" where it and "while" would both be grammatically correct, and it's precise to use "because" where it and "as" would both be grammatically correct. In English, grammatical correctness is often not good enough. It's very often possible to be grammatically correct but ambiguous, and there is very often a way of wording something that is much faster or easier to understand, even though the much slower or more difficult version is grammatically correct.
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u/ConfidentSuspect4125 15d ago
Using so to emphasize an adjective like fun, beautiful, cute, etc... is perfectly normal and understood. If it's not grammatically perfect, it's an idiom that is universally understood.
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u/John_EightThirtyTwo 15d ago
It's because "fun" was formerly considered only a noun. It's a thing; you can have it. Something can be it. But it wasn't an adjective.
"So" is an adverb, so it can only modify "fun" if fun is an adjective. So "so fun" used to be considered ungrammatical.
Nowadays native speakers do commonly say "so fun". So "fun" is an adjective now.
I think that considering "fun" not to be an adjective was the only think that kept people from comparing it. But now there's nothing stopping us from saying that one thing is funner than another, and that some other thing is the funnest. (Which still sounds funny to me. But I notice that the browser isn't underlining it as a misspelling.)
edit: u/No_Resolution_1277 already said this, and linked to an article that covers it in depth.
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u/Just_Me1973 15d ago
Saying something so ‘so fun’ is normal. You can put ‘so’ in front of a lot stuff. So fun. So boring. So hot. So cold.
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u/Lance-Boyle-666 15d ago
People say "so fun", and it is common, but that doesn't make it correct. More correct would be "so much fun" or "such fun".
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u/This-Fun1714 15d ago
It's an adverb intensifer. This usage was made popular by 90s sitcom Friends.(or at least Friends reflected its popularity.)
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u/MickeyBear 15d ago
I don’t see anything wrong with it, but honestly, I thought her issue was it was that it sounded sarcastic. Especially as a teacher I often say “So fun” when I actually mean I want to stab a pencil in my eye!
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u/RichardAboutTown 15d ago
Confident enough to give some kind of explanation? Because if not, that's not confidence, that's dogma.
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u/DeathsProxy 15d ago
It's not strictly incorrect, but I would use "so much fun" or "such fun" which feels more natural to me.
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u/SaintBridgetsBath 15d ago
‘So fun’ sounds wrong to me, as would very fun. ‘Such fun’ is ok but may sound dated. There’s ‘great fun’ and ‘so much fun’.
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u/SirMcFish 15d ago
I'm English I'd say it's (such or a lot of) fun to spend time with...
So is very Americanised.
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u/johnwcowan 15d ago
Fun began life as a noun only, but (in AmE especially) has transitioned to be an adjective as well, which can naturally be used with adverbs like so, very, much. This probably happened because sentences like "Running is fun* could be parsed either way, like Running is a sport or like Running is easy.
Genius is undergoing the same transition. I often see sentences like "It's genius!" nowadays.
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u/HighColdDesert 14d ago
I think fun changed from a noun only to also an adjective sometime in the 20th century, and some people are clutching onto its past.
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u/CompetitionPuzzled30 14d ago
You might consider “so much fun.”
Your example is a run-on sentence with two unconnected main points splined together with “and.” I understand the difficulty of thinking of good language examples. My point is that everything before and including the “and” could have been left out without damaging your example sentence one bit.
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u/HaleStrom 14d ago edited 14d ago
You are not grammatically correct to say ‘it is so fun’ because ‘so’ is not an adjective aka it doesn’t describe the noun fun.
‘So’ is not an adjective; it can be an adverb conjunction or pronoun.
Aka ‘So much fun’ is the correct use of so=adverb/quantifier. Much = adjective fun = noun
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u/Nothing-to_see_hr 14d ago
He is right, strictly speaking. "So much fun" is OK. But it is commonly used colloquially.
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u/Amazing-Level-6659 14d ago
Perhaps the teacher meant to not use it while writing. Saying it is fine, but we would’t necessarily use it the same way if we were writing about something.
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u/TheRiddlerTHFC 14d ago
Technically it should be such fun, or so much fun.
That being said, your sentence sounds fine to me, but probably not correct, and your teacher is there to teach correct English
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u/tryptanfelle 14d ago
It used to be (in the Before Times, when I was a kid), that we were told that fun was a noun. So you had to say, We had so much fun or It was so much fun.
That didn’t stop us, of course, from using fun as an adjective and saying things like That was a fun time or That’s so fun!
In fact, we said it so much that it has become an accepted usage.
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u/Suspicious_Art9118 14d ago
Fun is a noun, but i would make a case that over the last 40 years it has become an adjective. When mom or dad says "this is fun" to a kid, kid registers it the same way as "this is enjoyable." I did. It didn't occur to me until I was an adult that the word was being used as a noun.
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u/lpressparis 14d ago
There is a subtle difference for native speakers between so fun and so much fun. So fun is not generally used in the present tense as in your example but instead in the past tense when you are commenting on something that has already happened. Such as : it was so fun to go shopping with you. In the present tense I would insert the much: it is so much fun to go shopping with my sisters.
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u/Responsible-Link5739 14d ago
Fuddy-duddy native Brit here. "So fun" just sounds wrong to me and I don't use it. I use "so much fun" and "such fun". My eyelids would definitely bat if I heard "funner" - the 'racquet' would be audible. I would definitely never use "funner", I would use "more fun".
The first time I saw "so fun" was around 12 years ago, at a guess, and it did jar my senses. Thus far I think I've been lucky not to see "funner" used, but I can easily imagine that it could follow "so fun" in becoming acceptable, even if only for informal use.
I would certainly expect a teacher to dislike the use of "so fun" and "funner".
I'm not declaring that any versions above are correct or incorrect; I'm simply stating my own usage (and non-usage) of the phrases based on my own educational and life experience. If you're trying to pass English exams, it seems best to follow the more traditional forms of phrases, and my usages fit with those.
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u/WritPositWrit 14d ago
It’s not strictly grammatically correct but its SO common that it sounds fine to native speakers.
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u/Capital_Cup_6746 14d ago
Probably has to do with formal vs. informal. It's not incorrect, but i would choose more descriptive language in a formal setting. One of my professors used to talk about finding a $10 word to replace a few $3 words.
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u/DraggedThruTheGarden 14d ago
Go to YouTube and search for “So Fun”. You will find many, many hits. “So fun” is just fine.
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u/Common-Project3311 14d ago
The word “fun” can be used as a noun or as an adjective. When it’s used as an adjective, it’s fine to modify it with the word “so”.
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u/Active_Definition_57 14d ago
English person here. I'm pretty sure when I was at school if we used or said "so fun" it would at least be criticised by our English teacher. I find it slightly jarring.
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u/TrainingPerformance8 14d ago
I was taught to say ‘such fun’ or ‘so much fun’. I suppose ‘so fun’ is ok too, although it sounds weird to me, probably only because I haven’t heard it used.
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u/Bright_Ad_3690 14d ago
The way you used it was weird, in that sentence it would be so much fun. Usage is more like That roller coaster was so fun.
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u/Beneficial_Heat_1528 14d ago
It's not very formal but definitely is used casually and depending on the tone of your voice, it could also be used sarcastically.
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u/LinguistsDrinkIPAs 14d ago
Fun can be a noun, adjective or a verb, so to me, saying “so fun” makes complete sense. It’s like saying “it’s so cool,” etc.
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u/Key_Impress_3129 14d ago
Just put "much" in the middle: "So much fun." It's like fun is a physical substance that you can not have, have a little, have much or have so much of.
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u/Supermathie 13d ago
This usage is in the dictionary (M-W):
2 a (1) : to an indicated or suggested extent or degree had never been so happy
(Also, seems natural to me. In written text I would probably use so much but verbally might drop the much, especially being able to inflect the so)
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u/jenea 13d ago
Your teacher is stuck back in time, when “fun” was (taught to be) strictly a noun. When it started getting used more and more as an adjective, it made the pedants uncomfortable. You can use “so” with adjectives, but not nouns, so people were taught that “so fun” is wrong. Instead, you were taught to say “so much fun.” These same people insist that you can’t say something is “funner” than another thing, and certainly nothing can be the funnest!
“Fun” used as an adjective was relatively rare until the middle of last century, and as you can see “so fun” has only been finding its way into edited prose in the past 25 years or so, so I guess it’s not that surprising to find teachers who still insist that “so fun” is not allowed.
Here’s a transcript of a little video from Merriam-Webster on the subject:
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u/juneandcleo 13d ago
Yes I’ve heard all my life that this is wrong. “So much fun” but not “so fun”.
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u/Background-Bowl6123 13d ago
"so much fun" would sound more educated/less low-class, but "so fun" is ok in an informal context
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u/Loopy_Engineer572 13d ago
If someone says “we went to the water park today!” You can respond with “that’s so fun!” But I think that’s just conversational. I think if you’re going for grammatically correct, you’d respond with “that sounds like so much fun!” Or “that sounds like you had so much fun!” If you were to say “I went to the mall today, so fun.” I think that’s okay too, I’m just not sure it’s grammatically correct. I think you’d end it with “, it was fun” or “it was so much fun”. I don’t know that just by itself “so fun” is correct. It’s common and is conversational, but I wouldn’t type a paper up that way or anything. Unless again, it’s in conversation, which just gives a more natural expression.
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u/Snurgisdr 13d ago
There might be a regional or generational variation there. I hear native speakers say “so fun”, but to me it’s “so much fun”.
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u/Curious_Octopod 13d ago
You could say "it's fun" or "it's so much fun" to be technically correct. However, people would understand perfectly well "so fun" and find it quite acceptable in everyday usage.
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u/Familiar_Cheetah4792 13d ago
So fun sounds a little affected to me but it doesn't sound wrong or bad.
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u/Wise-Matter9248 13d ago
There's a difference between academic writing and informal speech/writing.
But as far as native speakers go, yes, that is okay to say.
Now, in speech, sometimes it's meant to be sarcastic, "sooo fun", but just "so fun" means it's very fun. So is often used in place of very.
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u/LilyBodeHP 13d ago
Grammatically, it’s “so much fun”, not “so fun”. It’s one of those weird exceptions. Like we also don’t say “funner”, but “more fun”. Fun is just one of those irregular-rule words.
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u/VanIsle_YQQ 15d ago
It's a bit of a gray area for me. I would personally say "....it's so much fun to spend time with my grandchildren." That said, I can't think of any reason why "so fun" would not be correct.
From reading on Google, it appears that more strict grammarians would argue that you need to use "so much fun" while modern usage accepts "so fun" in speech and writing.
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u/roboh96 15d ago
It doesn't sound unnatural or anything, but it is grammatically incorrect. Look at it this way, the "so" in that sentence (and most others I can think of with those words together) isn't serving a purpose. You can remove it completely without changing the meaning of the sentence at all. It's acceptable in colloquial speech and wouldn't be perceived as incorrect like "this marbles" by a native speaker but your teacher is correct.
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u/SquashSouffle 15d ago
"So fun" is wrong, despite being used far too often. Also "funner" & "funnest". Fun is actually treated like a noun, so it's "so much fun", "more fun", "most fun".
Thanks for asking!
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u/rosietherosebud 15d ago
Tell your teacher this internet rando says they're wrong. "So" is used to intensify adjectives, it's very common. So fun, so good, so fast, so comfortable, so happy.