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- Would you tell me the difference between "Enjoy" and "have a good time"?
Would you tell me the difference between "Enjoy" and "have a good time"?
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One of my Lang-8 friends introduced me a useful site for Japanese learners who study English. The topic I saw was "Native speakers don't use the word, "enjoy" so much. The following sentences are quoted from that site.
Mika is enjoying skiing in Nagano. → Mika is having a good time skiing in Nagano.
Mika enjoys going skiing in Nagano. → Mika likes to go skiing in Nagano.
I remember that Freddie Mercury was also singing, "I'm having a good time" by Queen's "Don't stop me now". When you say, "I'm having a good time", you don't need to put the object after the verb. That might be the reason when they set the words to music.
Actually, I've never learned the difference between "enjoy" and "have a good time" when I was a student. Is a word, "enjoy" old-fashioned? Is using a word, "enjoy" pretentious?
It's true that Japanese people often use this word when they talk to foreign people. I'd like to ask Native speakers. How do you feel when you hear Japanese friend of yours saying, "Enjoy your meal" or "Enjoy your holiday"?
Do you feel good about it?
Mika is enjoying skiing in Nagano. → Mika is having a good time skiing in Nagano.
Mika enjoys going skiing in Nagano. → Mika likes to go skiing in Nagano.
I remember that Freddie Mercury was also singing, "I'm having a good time" by Queen's "Don't stop me now". When you say, "I'm having a good time", you don't need to put the object after the verb. That might be the reason when they set the words to music.
Actually, I've never learned the difference between "enjoy" and "have a good time" when I was a student. Is a word, "enjoy" old-fashioned? Is using a word, "enjoy" pretentious?
It's true that Japanese people often use this word when they talk to foreign people. I'd like to ask Native speakers. How do you feel when you hear Japanese friend of yours saying, "Enjoy your meal" or "Enjoy your holiday"?
Do you feel good about it?
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One of my Lang-8 friends introduced me to a useful site for Japanese learners who study English.
The topic that I saw was "Native speakers don't use the word, "enjoy" so very much.
That might be the reason when they set the words to the music.
Is a the word, "enjoy" old-fashioned?
Is using a the word, "enjoy" pretentious?
It all depends on the tone of your voice. If you say it in a certain way, it can come off as sarcastic or mean [but this is also true for many other words!] so you'd have to focus on making yourself sound as sincere as possible.
Truthfully, I use the term "enjoy" quite a bit!
I don't know much about other people, but it's not pretentious or old-fashioned if you really mean it.
>so you'd have to focus on making yourself sound as sincere as possible.
What you said is right. The tone of my voice is the key.
Have a good time might mean something more long term. Enjoy seems like its more short term.
"Enjoy your meal"
Short term
"Have a good time on your vacation"
a little longer.
>"Have a good time on your vacation"
a little longer.
I often hear people saying "Enjoy your vacation", though.
> you would probably never say "Have a good time with your meal"
If you said so, it would sound silly...(my comment)
~~
I really like to think about English expressions.
By the way, thanks for your comment.
> *How do you feel when you hear Japanese friend of yours saying, "Enjoy your meal" or "Enjoy your holiday"?
That's perfectly fine, hosts of a party will often say "enjoy your meals", etc.. And wishing someone to enjoy their holiday is fine with "enjoy your holiday". It may have a little bit of distant feel to it, because close friends probably say something more familiar(or don't say that at all)
Anyways, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the word "enjoy". It's not old fashion, actually it's interesting that you brought this up since I would have never thought of it like this. I guess we might not use it much to describe a state of being versus saying someone is "having a good time". I can imagine someone sarcastically saying "Bob is enjoying his time with the boss right now". If Bob is playing tennis, we probably won't describe his state of enjoying tennis with "Bob is enjoying tennis."
Then again, I don't think that's completely correct either. "Bob went back home this weekend and he's enjoying his time with his family." This is completely natural to say since "having a good time" would overstating the situation and a bit inappropriate for such a harmonious occasion.. ^^a
Well at least I threw out my feelings to the phrases, I think you just have to hear it used instead of depending on some rules to follow.
>In verbal communication, we will almost never say "Mika is enjoying skiing in Nagano.
It seems for me that native sparkers prefer idiomatic expressions using a lot of
simple words such as "have" "get " "take" "make". So in verbal communication, "have a good time" sounds more familiar than "enjoy". Among close friends, people tend to use casual expressions, right?
>In fact, I don't really know how else you would say it--you would probably never say "Have a good time with your meal"
If you said so, it would sound silly... ~~
Would you tell me the difference between "enjoy" and "have a good time"?
One of my Lang-8 friends introduced me to a useful site for Japanese learners of English.
I read about the topic of how native speakers don't use the word, "enjoy" so much.
By the way, if you need to quote something that is already in double quote marks you should use single quote marks:
The title of the essay was, "How Native Speakers Don't Use the Word 'Enjoy' so much".
That might be the reason why they used this phrase for the song.
Is a word, "enjoy" old-fashioned?
Is using a word, "enjoy" pretentious?
I'd like to ask native speakers.
How do you feel when you hear a Japanese friend of yours saying, "Enjoy your meal" or "Enjoy your holiday"?
I don't think "enjoy" is particularly old-fashioned or pretentious either. It is a common word but of course if you can use "have a good time" properly I think it indicates a higher level of language mastery. "Enjoy" is a simpler and more basic word.
It's an interesting suggestion. Thank you again!
* "is enjoying skiing" means "is having a good time skiing now"
* "enjoys skiing" means "has a good time each time she goes skiing"
The examples are not meant to suggest that the second phrase in each pair is better than the first. It is just a different way of saying the same thing.
Other example of the difference in tenses:
"I *am explaining* the difference between 'does' and 'is doing' to you now."
"I *explain* how the English language works to many people on Lang-8, at many different times"
Thank you for your comments, but I don't think that these sentences are designed to show the difference between "enjoys" and "is enjoying".
The point is that native speakers often use an idiomatic expression, "have a good time" in verbal communication.
I completely understand that "enjoy" is a common word and there's nothing wrong with using it.
The topic I read about was "Native speakers don't use the word, 'enjoy' enough."
I remember that Freddie Mercury also sang, "I'm having a good time" in Queen's "Don't stop me now".
Actually, I've never learned the difference between "enjoy" and "have a good time" when I was a student.
If you include "when I was a student" then you are talking about a specific time, so the tense of "I've" doesn't match. If you drop "when I was a student" then "I've" is correct.
That might be the reason why they set the words to music.
"Set the words to music" has been changed in both the above corrections, but it is perfect English."
I'd like to ask any native speakers reading this how you feel when...
I think it's more natural to put this and the following sentence together.
I don't know the reason why I put "when" after "the reason". **?
Your sentence sounds much better. Thanks for your tip!
Enjoy your day!
Have a good day! (This sounds natural, isn't it?)
I think you can do it! It's the same grammar as expressions like "Do you know," "Can you tell me," "I have no idea," or "I wonder."
> Enjoy your day!
> Have a good day! (This sounds natural, isn't it?)
Both are natural. I would say "Enjoy your day!" when you are going to do something exciting. "Have a good day!" would be used for any regular day. Of course, in the US they often use "Have a nice day," but British people never say it.
Yes! I can do it. (Wow. You are a good teacher. You made me think I can do it.) haha ^^
"I hope you enjoyed your holiday."
"I hope you had an enjoyable holiday."
- these almost can sound like the person isn't particularly interested in whether the holiday was good or not. One might enjoy writing a letter, or enjoy eating natto...
"I hope you had a fantastic holiday."
- this gives more of an emotional input into the sentence.
However, the differences (if any) are very subtle, and highly subjective.
Thank you for your nice comments. I like to think such subtle nuances and I'm an emotional woman, so I'll remember your tip. ~~