Enjoy!


There are words which suddenly come into fashion and some of these expressions are, in my opinion, unwelcome. Many of them are Americanisms.

The British don't love food in the same way as, say, the French or Italians, although we do eat out more than before.

We would never expect the waiter or anyone sat at the table to say the equivalent of "buen provecho".

You might, just might, have heard the odd "Bon appétit" or "Enjoy your meal".

Over the last few years, "Enjoy!" will accompany everything that is brought to your table.

The other day while out for a meal, I lost count of the number of times I heard it.

I was given a beer. - Enjoy!
My mum was served a wine. - Enjoy!
The starters - Enjoy!
The main courses - Enjoy!
The desserts - Enjoy!

And all around us - Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!!!!!

Had I had one too many, I might have shouted out "Stop saying f*%!ing enjoy".

I often hear my students use "enjoy" wrongly.
  • I hope you enjoy of the course. ❌
  • I hope you enjoy the course 
  • It was a great party - I really enjoyed. ❌
  • It was a great party - I really enjoyed it.
  • It was a great party - I really enjoyed myself.
  • I enjoy with her. ❌
  • I enjoy her company.
  • Do you enjoy to work there? ❌
  • Do you enjoy working there?
As you can see from above, "enjoy" is followed by an object (never by "of" or "with"), can be reflexive (yourself, ourselves etc) or use the gerund (-ing).

Do you enjoy your job? What do/don't you like about it?

Do you enjoy learning English? Why/why not?

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Tell me about your last social occasion. Did you enjoy yourself?


Comments

Sir Joseph said…


Hi Graham,



Sometimes I enjoy working, but sometimes no. I would like that my job was interesting always, but when I control a procedure I have to do this way million times. This is boring. I prefer to do new things. In general, is exciting that you have difficult to do anything, because you enjoy resolving difficulties.



I enjoy learning English. If I wouldn´t enjoy studying English, I wasn´t studying English all my life, like all of Spanish people. (LOL). I enjoy more and more every day. Speaking other language is impressive and I proposed myself to know English and I hope that I will speak English well as soon as possible.



I am interested to discover what is the reality of life, of the world, of the human being, stars, planets, future and so on. In my opinion, what old people transmit us it is not fully updated. We need study more and more, until we can live more years and live around other stars.



I enjoyed much speaking English, last dinner, with my English Ministry colleagues. It was funny and we eat out sometimes. We enjoy speaking English of high level. (LOL).



See you.
Graham said…
Hello José,

I was getting worried about you. It's not like you to miss a Saturday night. You seem to make more mistakes on a Sunday before lunch - one too many aperitifs perhaps :D



Sometimes I enjoy working, sometimes I don't. I I have to repeat it a million times. This is boring. I prefer to do new things. In general, it is exciting when you have something challenging to do, because you enjoy resolving difficulties.

I enjoy learning English. If I didn't enjoy studying English, I wouldn't have studied English all my life, like all Spanish people. (LOL). I enjoy it more and more every day. Speaking another language is impressive and I set myself the challenge to know English and I hope that I will speak English well as soon as possible.



I am interested in discovering what the reality of life, of the world, of the human being, stars, planets, the future and so on is. In my opinion, what old people tell us is not fully updated. We need to study more and more, until we can live more years and live around other stars. (I'm not sure who you are referring to as old people)

I really enjoyed speaking English with my Ministry colleagues at our last dinner. It was fun and we eat out sometimes. We enjoy speaking English of a high level. (LOL).