If not s'amuser, how would one say "amuse oneself"?

Question

I find myself wanting to ask this based on the same question as Joseph K below - where you're given "Anne is having fun at the circus" and "Anne is amusing herself at the circus." as potential multiple choice answers, with only the former being marked correct.

If "Anne s'amuse au cirque" can't mean "Anne is amusing herself at the circus", how would you say that?

Accepted Answer

Hi Sebastian,
Interesting question!
As 's'amuser' means to have a good time doing something, I pondered whether 'to amuse oneself' may have a different meaning and I thought of what you might say to a child to do while you are doing something and don't want to be disturbed.
In this case, you might use 'se distraire' which is more -  ' to find amusement/ to distract oneself' or even 's'occuper' which is 'to keep oneself busy'.
Va t'occuper pendant que je fais la vaisselle = Go and find something to do while I wash up.
Hope this goes some way to answering your question.

Answer

Both statements ("to amuse onself" and "to have fun") translate to the same French phrase: s'amuser. Languages don't always have one-to-one correspondences between phrases.