The phrase "so fun..." A question for the grammar experts. Language changes, and I try to accept that even when I don't like it. One recent change, at least in the US, is the acceptance of the phrase "So fun," as in "Carousels are so fun!" This has emerged in the last five years. It grates on me, but I think it's becoming a part of the language. My question is: technically, is there anything grammatically incorrect about it? I think it should be "such fun" or "so much fun..." and I feel that there really ought to be a verb in there, "Riding carousels is such fun!" But what, exactly, is the problem? Is it that "so" is an adverb, "fun" is a noun, and an adverb shouldn't modify a noun?

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I would argue that the phrase 'so fun' in American English is much older than five years. As someone who grew up around US and UK English I always noticed that Brits treat 'fun' as a noun (saying 'such fun', 'so much fun', 'that was good fun') while Americans treat it as an adjective (saying 'so fun' and 'very fun'). So this difference has existed for at least 20 years, in my experience... 'Fun' was originally a noun in all dialects, and shifted only in American dialect, so you're right to say this is a characteristically US feature. I think 'fun' as an adjective in the US is well-established and accepted – as for whether there should be a verb, and whether 'fun' can describe an object, not an activity, I'm not sure!

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Hi Dan, although I'm not a grammar expert, I would like to share what we have learned from our English textbook about this phrase in school.

We are introduced that Fun is still an adjective, whereas So is an adverb of degree.  And So can equal to Such in this case.

I think I have used so many similar expression in daily life, like he's so angry, she's so sad, etc. Didn't doubt the grammar before haha. But as English learners, we accept below conclusions commonly:

correct grammar≠correct English
native speaker's English= correct English

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In the king’s English fun can only be a noun but except in very formal speech, fun as an adjective (‘so fun’) is extremely common and acceptable.

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Nothing has changed in the last 5 years. Although we can say "such," it's more common to hear "so." They mean the same thing. The word "fun" can be both a noun or an adjective. In this particular scenario, it's being used as an adjective. Words like "is" and "are" are classified as verbs. Specifically, they are called linking verbs. There are 23 linking verbs in English. They are as follows: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been, has, have, had, do, does, did, shall, will, should, would, may, might, must, can, could.

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