Funnily enough, we received two separate messages this summer about the phrase “funnily enough.” One listener has noticed their daughter using it, while the other has been hearing it from their grandson. The coincidence caught our attention, though it's not terribly surprising people are asking us about this phrase.
“Funnily enough” has been more common in British English since the beginning of the 20th century, but it didn't start becoming more common in American English until the last couple of decades.
But despite its recent rise, the phrase itself is far from new.
English speakers have been pairing sentence adverbs with “enough” since at least the early 1700s. Sentence adverbs modify an entire sentence, rather than a single word. Some early examples include phrases like “whimsically enough,” “aptly enough,” and “curiously enough.”
The adverb “funnily” emerged by the mid-1700s, meaning “in an amusing or humorous way.” Around the same time, we also see the rise of “oddly enough,” which functions similarly and is still commonly used today.
By the early 1800s, “funnily enough” had taken on broader meanings—often signaling something strange, unexpected, or surprising. That’s very much how we use it today.
Not all of us are fans of "funnily." In his usage guide, lexicographer Bryan Garner categorizes it as an "awkward adverb." Many of the awkward adverbs come from adjectives that end in "ly." For example, "silly" as an adverb is "sillily" and "friendly" becomes "friendlily." If these adverbs don't seem awkward enough in print, try saying them out loud.
"Funny" doesn't end in "ly," but funnily enough, "funnily" still made it on Garner's list.
There are some "ly" adjectives that can become an adverb without changing or adding anything. To hear more about that and more about "funnily enough," listen to the audio above.
