[Grammar] so enjoying

[mamen]

My dear teachers,
Am I correct when I said that my classmate's sentence was wrong?

"I'm so enjoying..."


I told him that it could be:
I am so enjoyable.
I am enjoying.
I am so joyful.

Could you please give an explanation for this?

 

[Verona_82]

Hi,

I'm not a teacher, but I have seen sentences where 'so' was followed by a verb.
We were so looking forward to meeting your family.
I think I might say something like "I'm so enjoying your party that I can't help telling you about it", but let's wait for a native speaker's comment.

PS. I doubt it's okay to say 'I'm enjoying'. "Enjoy' is a transitive verb.

 

[5jj]

I am so enjoyable.

Mamen, I strongly recommend that you do not utter those words. They suggest that somebody will enjoy you - not your company or your wit, but you.

...I have seen sentences where 'so' was followed by a verb.
We were so looking forward to meeting your family.
I think I might say something like "I'm so enjoying your party that I can't help telling you about it", but let's wait for a native speaker's comment.

PS. I doubt it's okay to say 'I'm enjoying'. "Enjoy' is a transitive verb.

You were mostly right up till your PS, Verona, and you weren't far wrong there.

We can indeed say, "I'm so enjoying your party that I can't help telling you about it". We can also say, "I'm so enjoying your party". We often use 'so' where the purist might prefer 'very much'.

It's true that you cannot say just 'I'm enjoying'; we need a grammatical object. However, we do these days have the command/wish "Enjoy!", meaning either 'enjoy yourself' or 'enjoy the experience'.

 

[BobK]

Hi,

I'm not a teacher, but I have seen sentences where 'so' was followed by a verb.
We were so looking forward to meeting your family.
I think I might say something like "I'm so enjoying your party that I can't help telling you about it", but let's wait for a native speaker's comment.
:up:

PS. I doubt it's okay to say 'I'm enjoying'. "Enjoy' is a transitive verb.

Your doubt is justified. You'd say 'I'm enjoying it/the movie/myself...' (or just 'I'm having a good time' ;-))

b

 

[Raymott]

You were mostly right up till your PS, Verona, and you weren't far wrong there.

We can indeed say, "I'm so enjoying your party that I can't help telling you about it". We can also say, "I'm so enjoying your party". We often use 'so' where the purist might prefer 'very much'.
Yes, but Verona was correct in saying that we would not say "I'm enjoying". She was no doubt reacting to mamen's "sentence" of "I'm so enjoying ...", which is not a good English sentence.

Yet another case of having to guess a sentence from a three-word phrase.
Please, learners, if you have a sentence for our consideration, why not extend us the courtesy of telling us what the whole sentence is.

 

[BobK]

:up: I guess I'm repeating myself here (;-)), but anyway...

My French master, about forty years ago, was fond of quoting the French grammarian Grévisse: 'Les mots n'existent pas'. We're all surrounded by them, so he obviously wasn't saying - contrary to all evidence - that they (les mots - words) don't exist. He was saying that they don't exist in a disembodied form, without context.

b