Learn English – Is using “Fortunate enough” wrong

phrase-usage

People who are fortunate enough to own a house in the city are very few.

The English quiz here suggests to remove enough saying it is unnecessary. Is it correct ? I have seen enough used in context of sufficient e.g. He is tall enough to be selected in military. But don't know why it's unnecessary in the above given sentence.

Best Answer

It's important to understand why the test says "fortunate enough" is redundant in this context. The given sentence isn't saying that being fortunate is a required condition to own a house in the city, but rather a characteristic of those who do. We can rephrase the example as:

Because few people are able to afford a house in the city, those who can are fortunate.

The problem is that, even though it's slightly redundant, it's perfectly natural to express this using "fortunate enough", because there is little significant difference between:

They are fortunate enough to own a house in the city

and

They are fortunate to own a house in the city.

One says they are sufficiently fortunate, and the other says they are just fortunate.

It's "a difference that makes no difference". But many non-native tests of English like to "split hairs" to hide the fact that the test makers care more about students' ability to memorize trivia than to their ability to learn how English is actually spoken.