Yamada-san wa omoshirosugiru

In lesson 6.8 Yamada-san wa omoshirosugiru is tranlated by Yamada san is too funny. I would rather say Yamada-san wa tanoshisugiru. First sentence means more for me “ he is too interesting”. Am I right ?

こんにちは (Konnichiwa) Abgueguen,

Thanks for your question.

I think you might have たのしい (tanoshī) and おもしろい (omoshiroi) a little mixed up. In some cases, they are interchangeable, so it can be a little tricky to tell them apart. 

You're correct that やまだ　さん　は　おもしろすぎる (Yamada-san wa omoshirosugiru) could also be translated as “Yamada is too interesting"; however, the adjective おもしろい (omoshiroi) can mean both “interesting” OR “funny." 

You can use it to talk about a person or thing that is “interesting” (e.g. "this movie is interesting") OR a person or thing that is “funny” (e.g. “Yamada is too funny”). 

たのしい (Tanoshī) on the other hand, can ONLY be used to say “fun," plus, it can ONLY be used to talk about an activity or subject that is fun (e.g. “Japanese is fun,” “soccer is fun”). You CAN'T use this to talk about people being fun. For that, you need to use おもしろい (omoshiroi), which is closer in translation to “funny” in English.

やまだ　さん　は　おもしろすぎる (Yamada-san wa omoshirosugiru) could be translated as either “Yamada is too interesting” or “Yamada is too funny," but it's more common to translate おもしろい (omoshiroi) as “funny” when talking about people. 

I hope this helped. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

勉強を頑張ってください！ (Benkyō o ganbatte kudasai!)

Thank you so much Emma. Very clear