Funner
" Funner is not a word." Or so they say. When learning a foreign language, it is common to lack the right words to express an idea directly. The solution, as my high school German teacher put it, is circumlocution—using words you do know to express the same idea indirectly. (See this old blog post I wrote back in high school, for example.) After all, the foremost priority when using language is to be understood . Eloquence, succinctness, originality? Admirable goals, to be sure, but they are impossible to accomplish without first making sure that your interlocutor understands you. When you are lost in a country far from home, there is no way to get anywhere without being understood. That is part of why it has become a pet peeve of mine whenever someone—usually a K-12 English teacher—implies that someone should feel embarrassed or ashamed for using the words funner and funnest in everyday speech on the basis that they are not actually real words. Firstly, they ar...