Skip to main content

Enjoy

The regular verb enjoy means ‘get pleasure from something’. It usually has an object:

  • We enjoyed the movie so much.
  • Enjoy your holiday in Ireland.
  • Not: Enjoy in Ireland.

We also use enjoy to talk about getting pleasure from a situation we are in. In this case, we say enjoy myself, yourself, herself, himself, etc.:

  • Did you enjoy yourself last night?
  • We always enjoy ourselves when we go to Lynn’s house.
warning

We use the -ing form after enjoy but we don’t use a *to-*infinitive:

  • I never enjoyed cycling.

  • Not: I never enjoyed to cycle.

  • They enjoyed meeting people on their trip around Italy.

  • Not: They enjoyed to meet people on their trip …

Spoken English:

In informal situations, enjoy is sometimes used on its own without an object. This is especially common in American English:

  • A: We’re now going out for dinner.
  • B: Enjoy!