How do you say "funny"?


The English word "funny" means "something that makes one laugh". What is/are
the closest Japanese word/words that match the meaning and the nuance of the
word "funny"?

Two possible matches are 楽しい【たのしい】 and 面白い【おもしろい】. However, 楽しい is more like
"fun" and 面白い is more like "interesting". There is also 可笑しい【おかしい】, which in
my experience is often used with negative connotations. The word "funny" can
also have negative connotations, but is usually positive. Another possible
match is 滑稽 but this seems to have the sense of "extremely funny".




I think that 面白い is actually much closer to "funny" than most learners
realise, because they think of 面白い as "interesting". It often means "funny",
e.g.

> アキちゃんはちょうおもしろいよね  
>  Aki is really funny.

Another way of saying "that's really funny", which hasn't been mentioned, is

> (ちょう)うける

