Merriam-Webster - Fun, Funner, Funnest lyrics

Welcome to Ask the Editor. I'm Emily Brewster, an Associate Editor at Merriam-Webster. “I've never been to a funner party.” “It was the funnest party I can remember.” As a one-syllable adjective, “fun” should by all rights have the comparative and superlative forms “funner” and “funnest,” just like “new” has “newer” and “newest.” But spell checkers and lots of people think “funner” and “funnest” are just plain wrong. The not-quite-kosher status of “funner” and “funnest” has its origin in the adjectival status itself of “fun.” Just as “funnest party” sounds strange to many of us, there are a number of people who also object to sentences like “The party was really fun.” They'd prefer we all used “fun” only as a noun—“We had great fun”; “The party was such fun.” Adjectival use dates back at least as far as 1840s, but until the mid-20th century it was pretty rare. Perhaps there is something about post-war America that felt, oh, more “fun” to people than the noun could express. “Fun” as a noun does continue to be more common, and there are still some who think uses like “so fun,” “very fun,” and “fun times” should be avoided in any kind of serious discourse. But their numbers are dwindling, and the adjective “fun” is fully accepted by a number of dictionaries, including ours. Does this mean “funner” and “funnest” are destined for full acceptance, too? Certainly possible, likely even. “More fun” and “most fun” are still the usual comparative and superlative forms of “fun,” but “funner” and “funnest” are included in our dictionaries with a sometimes label, because we have plenty of evidence of them in published, edited text. They're most natural when paired with other similar adjectives—“a bigger and funner event”; “the funnest and funniest person.” I say, don't hesitate to use them if you're inclined to—it'll be funner if you do. For more from our Ask the Editor series, visit merriam-webster.com.