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is it correct to say "people will make fun on/over you" or it should be "people will make fun of you"

what makes me to think the two phrases has discrimination/difference is. "fun of you"=here the second person "you" did something funny that make others to laugh. "fun on you"= does it sound like people will create fun over the second person you though he/she doesn't anything funny?

is the above discrimination is correct?

please give me an answer as why we should use X than Y besides than saying X is correct and Y is wrong, So do follow the X:).

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  • Is the discrimination correct ? What did you mean by that ?
    – Varun Nair
    Dec 10, 2015 at 9:07
  • I meant is there any discrimination between the two phrases?if it does then the above could suitable for it?
    – RaGa__M
    Dec 10, 2015 at 9:10
  • Do you mean "difference" ? As in, "Is there any difference between the two phrases" ?
    – Varun Nair
    Dec 10, 2015 at 9:12
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    If you mean difference, then yes. One is wrong and the other one is correct.
    – Varun Nair
    Dec 10, 2015 at 9:15
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    @Varun - I agree, but with a caveat: Preposition use can be idiomatic and it can change over time. (I used to think we would say, "I dropped the vase by accident," but I'm hearing more and more people say, "I dropped the vase on accident.") Perhaps "people will make fun of you" is more established for the time being, but it won't necessarily stay that way forever. Regional variations may apply, too.
    – J.R. ♦
    Dec 10, 2015 at 21:07

3 Answers 3

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The correct version of the sentence is :

"People will make fun of you."

"On you" sounds wrong. You cannot make fun on a person.

Let me give you an example to help you understand better.

"Harry made fun of Sally"

Here, Harry teases Sally. This doesn't mean that Sally did something funny. Sally did or said something and Harry laughed at her actions, and teased her.

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  • so here Harry intentionally placing/imposing fun over Sally(teasing) though she doesn't anything to laugh but placing something over her will make others to laugh thus harry making/imposing fun on/over sally
    – RaGa__M
    Dec 10, 2015 at 9:40
  • I'm not sure what you meant, but yes, harry intentionally makes fun of her. Her feeling may get hurt in this scenario. He can tell the others and all of them can make fun of her too. Harry needn't do anything other than just spread the word to others.
    – Varun Nair
    Dec 10, 2015 at 9:51
  • if sally tell a joke then she is now having fun which make other to laugh so its a "fun of you/sally(by your example)",but if harry impose fun over sally then "harry make fun on/over sally". Does it make sense now? like what caused this question?
    – RaGa__M
    Dec 10, 2015 at 10:15
  • "of" make sense if the phrase is like "people make fun of sally's accent" so sally got something that make people to have fun.
    – RaGa__M
    Dec 10, 2015 at 10:19
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    No, in English "made fun fun of" is used when someone is mocking the other person. Many times, the person that is being made fun of, isn't having fun at all. Essentially, the other person is having fun, not the person that is being made fun of. Here is a thesaurus link of similar words and phrases to "made fun of" for reference. thesaurus.com/browse/make%20fun%20of
    – Zessa
    Dec 10, 2015 at 12:37
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Ditto @VarunKN. Let me just add:

To "make fun of" someone is to mock them or ridicule them. Like if Bob said, "Ha ha, Sally's hair really looks weird today!", or "Sally is so stupid, she believes that ..." he would be making fun of her.

If Sally told a joke that Bob considered funny, we would NOT say that he was making fun of her. We might say, "Bob thought that Sally was very funny". That could be unclear: we might mean that he thought she was being funny on purpose, like telling a joke. Or we might mean that he thought she was funny by accident, that she was clumsy or stupid.

If Bob and Sally are doing something entertaining with each other, like they go to an amusement park, we might say "Bob and Sally had fun together."

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I have never heard of "make fun on X" in US English. But, I wouldn't be shocked or confused if I heard a UK or US slang/dialect speaker say this (I would assume it meant the same as "make fun of X").

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    I think you mean to say that you've never heard "make fun on X". The phrase "fun on X" would be rather common: They had fun on the playground, we had fun on vacation, the twins had fun on the bus, etc.
    – J.R. ♦
    Jun 19, 2019 at 21:18
  • "Fun on you" is logical, "Fun of you" is just doesn't seem logical, I am thinking about the logical aspect to be honest, because what you do may or may not be funny, but if you do x and it cracked-up some people, then it does mean they are implicating and making that fun on you, unfortunately I just can't down-vote the above two answers as I have less reputation.
    – RaGa__M
    Jun 20, 2019 at 11:20
  • @Explorer_N I have often heard from non-native speakers that prepositions are among the very hardest things to learn in English - precisely because I don't think there really is any logic to most of them. There are just conventions for certain phrases that you have to learn and accept. But in this case, I think "make fun of you" is logical, I believe it is a shortened form of the concept "I am creating fun out of you" - so, "you" are the ingredient from which I am creating a thing that is "fun". Like, "I made cake out of eggs and flour".
    – Michael Liquori
    Jun 20, 2019 at 15:52

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