Funner vs. More Fun

• As a noun, fun means enjoyment.
• Fun is not universally accepted as an adjective. People who do accept it as an adjective seem to prefer more fun and most fun over funner and funnest.

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Whether fun or more fun is correct seems like a simple question, but the answer isn’t exactly straightforward. To understand, you must examine the background of the word fun. Let’s get started.

Fun, the Noun

Fun is enjoyment, or something that provides amusement. If you have fun in a greater quantity, you have more fun. Some people say that fun can function only as a noun. Before we address that issue, let’s look at some examples of fun as a noun.

She has the most fun when she is dancing.

He had more fun dancing than he anticipated.

Fun, the Adjective

As early as the 1900s, people were using fun as an adjective in speech and informal writing. People use it to describe things or people relating to fun. Sometimes, it describes things that are whimsical. Many people, perhaps most people, strongly prefer more fun and most fun as the comparative and superlative forms of fun. Still, plenty of others label things funner and funnest. Many dictionaries acknowledge this use, but still label the adjective form as informal. Here are some examples of fun used as an adjective.

Morris is a fun guy.

Keith is more fun than Bjorn.

Keith is funner than Bjorn.

Gregory is the most fun man I ever met.

Gregory is the funnest man I ever met.

If you’re not sure which way to go, remember that more fun and most fun will raise fewer eyebrows than funner and funnest.

Examples

For Ben Mendelsohn, playing a villain on-screen in the new Star Wars film was a career highlight. “They’re pretty fun,” the actor said today on ‘GMA.’ “Bad guys have more fun.”

ABC News

“Scheduling a fun event for your leisure time ruins it, removing the enjoyment from the activity as surely as if you had to be at the office instead,” says Sorrel, citing research by Ohio State University professor Selin Malkoc.

Successful Meetings

“If you have a guy wide open, he has to get the ball. It builds guys’ confidence, it makes the game funner. If we’re not playing the right way, it’s frustrating.”

NBA.COM

It takes an entire community and a whole state to make this all turn into one of the funnest events of the year,” said Jim Balamaci, the president and CEO of Special Olympics Alaska.

KTVA.com

If you think fun belongs only in the noun category, then “more fun” is the only choice for you. Do you accept fun as an adjective? If you do, you can also embrace funner and funnest in informal writing. If enough people do so, it will probably become accepted as standard before long. Speaking of fun, why not learn whether you are using some other English expressions correctly?