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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

Watching TV is fun.

I'd be happy if someone would answer my question. Thanks in advance.

Concerning the following 2 sentences ---

A: Watching TV is a pleasure.

B: Watching TV is fun.

I think In A, "a pleasure" means a concrete one-time event, so "pleasure" (non-article) is wrong.

But how about "fun"? I think "fun" is very concrete. So I wonder why you use "fun" without "a"?

Why don't you write "Watching TV is a fun"?
  

Top answer

"Fun" isn't a noun so you don't use "a". You could say "Watching TV is a fun thing to do" - then "a" is because of the noun "thing" not the adjective "fun". You could also say "Watching TV is a pleasurable thing to do" - here "pleasurable" is an adjective, as opposed to the noun "a pleasure".

— A Cornish Pasty

  • "Fun" isn't a noun so you don't use "a".
  • You could say "Watching TV is a fun thing to do" - then "a" is because of the noun "thing" not the adjective "fun".
  • You could also say "Watching TV is a pleasurable thing to do" - here "pleasurable" is an adjective, as opposed to the noun "a pleasure".
  • "Watching TV" is an action which can't be described with a noun.
  • You could say "The neighbour's child is a pleasure", where "child" is a noun.
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8 Answers
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"Fun" isn't a noun so you don't use "a".

You could say "Watching TV is a fun thing to do" - then "a" is because of the noun "thing" not the adjective "fun".

You could also say "Watching TV is a pleasurable thing to do" - here "pleasurable" is an adjective, as opposed to the noun "a pleasure".

"Watching TV" is an action which can't be described with a noun. You could say
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AnonymousWhy don't you write "Watching TV is a fun"?
There is no knowing why no article is used. People have just said it without an article for ages. Many linguistic phenomena are inexplicable, and that is true about other languages than English as well.

CB
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See for lots of examples of the use of fun and funny.

(There's no such thing as a fun. fun is uncountable.)

CJ
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-Hi, Cool Breeze. I see very well. But There is one thing I'd like to know.
"Pleasure" and "A pleasure" in A is different in the degree of abstraction. Pleasure is rather abstractive, and A pleasure is concrete.

Then, is the word "fun" concrete?
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Anonymous-Hi, Cool Breeze. I see very well. But There is one thing I'd like to know.
"Pleasure" and "A pleasure" in A is different in the degree of abstraction. Pleasure is rather abstractive, and A pleasure is concrete.

Then, is the word "fun" concrete?
I don't have the vaguest idea. I never think in terms of concrete and abstract
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Anon, don't mix up the ideas of concrete versus abstract with the ideas of a count noun versus a noncount noun.

There are noncount nouns that are tangiblle and there are count nouns that are abstract.
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Exactly. The noun 'fun' is always uncountable. The word 'pleasure' can be used both as a countable and as an uncountable noun.
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also because tv is good for you so your not wrong when you say '' tv is fun to watch and good for me to watch''
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