Is 'I hope you enjoyed.' grammatically correct? I have heard it used many times by non native speakers. However it sounds odd to me if there is nothing after 'enjoyed'. Such as I hope you enjoyed it/the party.
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Apart from the rather trite imperative "Enjoy!" spoken by a waiter/serving person as they deliver your meal, enjoy is normally a transitive verb (many waiters say "Enjoy your meal").
Native speakers today never use it intransitively in contexts like "That was fun! I really enjoyed!", which needs to be reflexive (re-using the subject as object) to be valid: "I really enjoyed myself!".
FumbleFingers
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In other words: "enjoy", being transitive, needs a direct object, you have to "enjoy" something - such as "it" or "your meal". The Oxford Learner's Dictionary only lists one case of using "enjoy" intransitively: the (informal) "Enjoy!" exclaimation. [http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/enjoy] – zeel Apr 03 '15 at 18:07
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@zeel: Indeed. But you have reminded me to edit in the reflexive usage (which effectively only occurs because we require this verb to be transitive). – FumbleFingers Apr 03 '15 at 18:16
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This is a sentence fragment in that it does not express a complete thought. The verb enjoyed needs a noun that serves as its direct object to complete the thought, eg "the party."
Ironically, elimination of "you enjoyed" would make a complete sentence, expressing the thought "I hope."
David W
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It's my downvote. Because to all intents and purposes, without an actual or contextually strongly implied object, I hope is just as unnatural as I enjoy. I also don't see that calling OP's error a "sentence fragment" is a particularly useful way of looking at things. – FumbleFingers Apr 03 '15 at 18:20
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Thank you for taking the time to explain the vote. I will defend the "fragment" comment as being on-point with regard to the OP's specific initial question - is the sentence grammatically correct - which it is not. That is specifically because it is a sentence fragment, which is the legitimate grammatical term. I'm not sure how to better characterize it.
As for the other observation, we will have to agree to disagree on the contextual ambiguity of "I hope" vs "I enjoy." It is legitimate to hold a non-specific hope, as in to convey general optimism. Enjoy, on the other hand, begs a recipient.
– David W Apr 03 '15 at 20:35 -
As a matter of fact, OED's first definition 1a for enjoy is *intr. To be in joy, or in a joyous state; to manifest joy, exult, rejoice.* But in ordinary speech today, if there's negligible context to imply some specific "object" (target of the verb) it really has to be explicitly stated for both verbs. Suppose you call someone up out of the blue and ask "What are you doing right now?". Neither "I'm enjoying" nor "I'm hoping" sound like credible responses to me. – FumbleFingers Apr 03 '15 at 20:51
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As I noted previously, we will have to agree to disagree. Neither of us will persuade the other differently. I stand behind my answer. – David W Apr 03 '15 at 21:38
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Putting aside the fragment part of this debate for a moment, I'd still deem this as "acceptable informal speech in friendly conversational settings." I'd put it in the same category as statements like "Thanks much" (short for, "Thank you very much"), "Nice night" (short for, "This is a nice night"), or, "Delightful evening" (short for, "We had a delightful evening"). Perhaps there would be less debate if this was categorized as an intentional fragment or stylistic fragment. – J.R. Apr 04 '15 at 10:38
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@J.R. That's an interesting suggestion. While I understand the notion of the intentional fragment, I don't think the OP's question - particularly in the context of this site - resolves to such a subtlety. Even if it did, I don't think even that would recharacterize what the OP offered as grammatically correct. Ultimately, it's a lazy, incomplete construct, and the effort used to rationalize it is far greater than that exercised by simply selecting a suitable noun to resolve it. – David W Apr 04 '15 at 12:44
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@DavidW - The problem with calling it a "sentence fragment" is that some might think that implies "grammatical faux pas", which in turn implies, "needs to be fixed." You asked for a reason for the downvote; it's not mine, but I'm speculating that it might be this "needs to be fixed" implication that prompted it. As for calling the construct "lazy," that's one interpretation, but it could be characterized as "deliberately terse," too. It depends on the situation; I have no problem with a maître d' offering a friendly, "I hope you enjoyed!" as I'm on my way out the door of an upscale restaurant. – J.R. Apr 04 '15 at 16:45
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@J.R. Thanks for the input. The issue for me, however, is that in most cases, a "sentence fragment" is a faux pas that "needs to be fixed." Yes, I know about stylistic or intentional fragments, but in the vein of a learning site, I think it is better to train toward the development of good habits, and as such, sentence fragments generally should be corrected. – David W Apr 04 '15 at 22:24
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@DavidW - The mission of a learner's site is two-fold. Yes, it's good to develop "good habits." Yet it's equally vital to explain where "rules" can – and often do – get bent, twisted, and exempted. Reality is, we natives don't all speak in complete sentences all day long, and shame on us if we lead the learner to believe that the cashier at the grocery store or the waitress in the diner is talking like a cretin because they (gasp!) offered a greeting or said goodbye using a sentence that didn't have a subject and a predicate. We need to teach what's natural as well as what is proper. – J.R. Apr 04 '15 at 22:55
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@j.r. I respect your point, and to an extent agree that informality begets bent rules. However, given that we are already awash in butchered English, broadening the notion of what's "acceptably wrong" in the name of informality does a disservice to both the language and those who are learning it. In the spectrum of "right" versus "informality/anything goes," we are so close to "anything goes" that a bit more strength towards what's right can't help but be a good thing. – David W Apr 05 '15 at 01:37
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David - I respect you're opinion, too, but I've seen a myriad of questions on ELL where people were puzzled simply because they were either adhering to rules or definitions too strictly (see this question, e.g.), or unaware of casual conventions in conversation (like in this question, e.g.). This is another interesting question illustrating how learners can struggle with simple, conversational phrases. – J.R. Apr 05 '15 at 03:41
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Thank you all for your responses!!! In this case "I enjoyed!" sounds odd however "Did you want to go live abroad?" and responding with a "I hoped!" "I wished!" Sounds totally fine. But "I enjoyed!" in any circumstance sounds odd to me. Is this just me? Or is the word "enjoy" and exception? – yyy Apr 05 '15 at 13:45
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yyy - @David and I have spent a lot of time talking about some philosophical issues, but I think we both agree that this usage is not very common, and it does strike even the native ear as a little bit odd. – J.R. Apr 06 '15 at 01:12