0

We can use happy like in "happy endings", "happy story", "happy summer" etc. in order to mean that those things make us or made us happy.

But the following sounds weird to me.

Having you is happy for me

For example, the sentence “This story is very happy for me” doesn't sound weird to me but the other one does. Is that sentence wrong or not? I need your help.

Edit:
Another example: We can say

It was sad for me to lose.

but why can't we say the following?

It was happy for me to win.

If we can't say the sentence above, why does: “The day was happy for me.” sound OK?

|improve this question
  • 'John is happy for me' is idiomatic, but means 'John is happy to see me doing well [in the situation mentioned]'. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 9 '17 at 13:58
  • 1
    Thanks for trying to help but this doesn't answer my question. :) – Fire and Ice Jul 9 '17 at 14:13
  • I think your sad/happy comparison makes for a stronger question. You might want to consider editing your question's title and body along those lines - perhaps something like "Why '(It) was sad to see you go' but '(I) was happy to see you return'?". I'm using brackets here just to highlight the difference between the two. Note that replacing happy with delightful sounds fine. – Lawrence Jul 9 '17 at 14:36
  • Though 'Having you as my enemy makes me sad' and 'It is sad for me to have you as my enemy' are both idiomatic, 'Having you as my friend makes me happy' is idiomatic whereas 'It is happy for me to have you as my friend' sounds off to my ear. This post at Reddit argues its acceptability, with conflicting views; I'd say that the acceptability of 'It is Adj for me to' and 'Having you ... is Adj for me' depends on the specific adjective. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 9 '17 at 14:41
  • 1
    A happy ending or happy story is not described that way because it made you happy - in English if something is described as "happy" it is understood as an (objective) intrinsic quality of that thing. If you say "this story is very happy for me" you are saying that, in your opinion, the story is happy, not that it brought you any particular feelings of happiness. To express that meaning, you do have to say "the story makes me happy." But that doesn't answer WHY it's that way, which I will keep thinking about. – MAA Jul 9 '17 at 14:46
-1

You can absolutely say having you is happy for me. To my ears, it has an unstructured and slightly awkward sound, which is ideal for conveying the feeling that people often have when they make an emotional statement to another person, groping for words in the face of deep feeling.

If you're writing dialog, anything you can put between quotation marks is fine,

|improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.