Learn English – “It is happy for me to ….” and “It is glad for me to….”

adjectivescompound-adjectivesword-usage

Okay, so my students in Japan keep using

“it is happy for me to…” “…it is glad for me to…”

I know it is incorrect and the words happy and glad can be changed with others to make some sentences work, i.e. “it is interesting for me to…” I know glad and happy are emotions and state of being that need human or animal subjects, i.e. “I am happy for you”.

Also I know that ‘happy feelings’, ‘happy memories’, ‘happy birthday’ are all a different form of the adjective usage. I need help with, what is exactly the issue with “it is happy for me to…”? I can't think of anything other than it is not right, and I feel weird about it.
So please help!

Edit: Native speaker, MA in Linguistics, living in Japan long enough to forget English. Posted here only after the other native speakers failed to answer as well.

Best Answer

It is interesting for me to ... .

is equivalent to

I find it interesting to ... .

Similar equivalences are found with adjectives such as useful /helpful / difficult / annoying / relaxing.

These adjectives describe the characteristics of some object or action. For example: a warm bath is relaxing.

  • It is relaxing for me to have a warm bath when I get home from work.
  • I find it relaxing to have a warm bath when I get home from work.

This doesn't work for adjectives that describe emotional states: ?a warm bath is happy.

  • ?It is happy for me to have a warm bath when I get home from work.
  • ?I find it happy to have a warm bath when I get home from work.
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