funny

«funny» in Mova's school dictionary: making you laugh or smile: a funny joke — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (funny, funnier, funniest); adverb funnily

meaning for a pupil

1) Funny means making you laugh or smile: a funny joke. tree →

2) Funny can mean strange or unusual: a funny smell, that's funny. tree →

3) Feeling funny can mean feeling a bit unwell. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories and everyday life «funny» describes jokes, comedies and silly moments. Pupils learn that something is only funny if everyone can laugh, including the person it is about; a joke that hurts is not funny. In safety lessons «a funny smell» (gas, burning) or «a funny feeling» about a person is a reason to tell an adult. Phrases: funny bone, funny business, that's funny, very funny (said sarcastically), funny-looking.

examples

• The clown was really funny. tree →
• Tell me a funny joke! tree →
• That's funny; I left my keys right here. tree →
• There's a funny smell in the kitchen; is something burning? tree →
• I feel a bit funny; I think I ate too much. tree →
• Very funny! Now give me back my hat. tree →
• He hit his funny bone and his arm tingled. tree →
• It's not funny to laugh at someone who fell. tree →
• "Oh how funny!" said Ida, and she laughed. tree →

note

Comparison: funnier, funniest (y → i). Two different meanings: «funny ha-ha» (makes you laugh) and «funny peculiar» (strange). The «funny bone» is not a bone; it is a nerve in your elbow. «Fun» (enjoyable) and «funny» (makes you laugh) are different: a game can be fun without being funny.

In the corpora

• Behind a funny line about someone there may be a sad story, like old pets that died.
• Stars go on chat shows mainly to promote a new film, book or tour, and their funny stories are often practised beforehand.
• Cartoons break the rules of physics on purpose to be funny, like running off a cliff and falling only after looking down.
• Sound designers make and mix many layers of sound so a scene feels bigger, scarier or funnier.
• The same pictures with different music can feel scary, sad or funny.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «funny» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.