Learn English – When to use “enjoy” and “enjoy theself”

differencesentence-usage

As a new learner of this language I am not able to differentiate between these two sentences:

a) I enjoyed the party.

b) I enjoyed myself at the party.

I can only say that first sentence is used when someone has enjoyed the party with all others present.
And the second means that he tried to enjoy party by all means available but alone.

Best Answer

Both the statements actually imply that you were happy and took pleasure from the party you attended .

I would like to clarify this by giving definitions.

Google defines 'enjoy' as:

enjoy /ɪnˈdʒɔɪ,ɛn-/ verb
1. take delight or pleasure in (an activity or occasion).
I enjoy watching good films

Collins dictionary defines 'enjoy oneself' as:

Synonyms of 'enjoy oneself'
have a good time, be happy, have fun, have a field day (informal), have a ball (informal),live life to the full, make merry, let your hair down

Thesaurus.com defines 'amuse oneself' as:

amuse oneself
Main Entry: delight in
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: take pleasure from
Synonyms: admire, adore, amuse oneself, appreciate, be content, be pleased, cherish, dig*, eat up, enjoy, feast on, get a kick out of, get high on, get off on, glory in, groove on, indulge in, like, live a little, live it up, love, luxuriate in, relish, revel in, savor

All these imply that whether you say "I enjoyed..." or "I enjoyed myself somewhere" it simply means that you took pleasure from there.

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