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We have some 20 somethings in our IT Department, and whenever they begin to explain something techy to me, they start with, "So...blah, blah, blah." Therefore, I thought that use of "so" was something seen in the younger generation. Today, at a conference, two physicians used "so" very often when people asked them questions. Now, they were both rather young, for physicians. However, physicians are never that young because of their 4 years of college and 4 years of medical school and 1 year of internship and 4-8 years of residency and 1-3 years of fellowship... Therefore, this "so" for starting sentences doesn't seem to be age related. Is this something new? Or has it been around for awhile and I am just realizing it? Or are these just isolated situations? | ||
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So Folks have been saying it as long as I can remember. You've never heard somebody say nu? —Ceci n'est pas un seing. | |||
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Starting a sentence with "so" is not wrong; it depends on the rest of the sentence as to how good the overall construction is. But I would suggest than any sentence that starts with the phrase "That's so not..." is unlikely to be one that meets with my own approval! Richard English | |||
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I think this is the recency illusion. Once you start noticing something you notice every occurrence of it. I think it's been around for a long time though I lack the research skills to look into just how long. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | |||
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Yes, I've heard it before. I was not clear. People do say "so" when starting sentences. But in these cases, it has been with every, single answer to a question. I don't believe I have seen that before, though perhaps Bob is correct. | |||
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It might be a verbal tic in some, but I do not think it is one that is recent. —Ceci n'est pas un seing. | |||
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The OED has an entry for "so" as an introductory particle. They say it's common in Shakespeare, for instance: So so, quoth he; these lets attend the time. - The Rape of Lucrece | |||
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My question should have been more clear, as I indicated above. While I've seen it (and probably said it myself) when answering questions, these examples (two very young people in our IT Department and two 30-40 year-old physicians) literally said it every time they answered a question. Perhaps that's what all of you have seen before. If I say, for example, "What is your favorite word?" You'd say, "So...my favorite word is "epicaricacy." And so on with every single question. In my opinion, that kind of frequency is terribly annoying and makes me focus on the "so" and not the answer. | |||
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I had a teacher once who prefaced every answer to every question with "no"." No, you're right", I once heard him say. So, I have been so annoyed that I shall never start another answer with it, ever. So, how'd I do? —Ceci n'est pas un seing. | |||
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So, not so well.  Here might be the difference. When we were talking about "cool" in another thread, several said that it should only be used with informal communication. I think that goes for "so" when it's used to answer questions. Therefore, the physicians, in this formal meeting (with attendees from all over the world), answering "so..." to every question annoyed me. It would have been similar to their saying, "Cool!" had someone told them about their use of the Angoff standard setting procedure. | |||
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Just following up. So...I've been observing not only my use of "so," but others' as well, because of this thread. I have decided that I was wrong about "so." Indeed, people use it to start sentences all the time, and that includes me. | |||
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So what's the problem? | ||
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Proof, I was just following up to say, after observation of the use of the word "so," I've found that it is used all the time to start sentences, including by yours truly. If you recall, my original post here had assumed that starting sentences with so was seen more in the younger generation, but wasn't all that common. I was completely wrong, and I wanted to admit it. So ( ), there is no problem. | |||
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So is just so, so... Kalleh, I know what you mean about it's being annoying, but I know I do it myself. It's just a habit of speech, I think, which as you've explained, you've discovered. The one I find myself doing, which also annoys me, is inserting "like" into sentences. Like, I shouldn't have to throw that word in there. It's just, like, so lame! I so do not like when I use like like that! Wordmatic | |||
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This is probably the first time I have read a phrase where the word "it's" and the word "its" can be substituted one for the other without significantly upsetting its meaning. "...I know what you mean about it is being annoying..." (as written with the "it's" abbreviation) and "...I know what you mean about its being annoying..." (using "being" as a gerund). Either makes sense in the overall context of this thread, although I think that the second sense is probably better. Richard English | |||
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Someone who shall be nameless asked me to post this for s/he. Frank So is the author of this book: > http://www.amazon.com/Practice...gement/dp/0873260775 > No doubt Kalleh is addressing him when she says, "So." And how are Mr > So's talents as a tailor? So sews so-so. | ||
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Ah, yes, WM, I don't like it when I say it either, but I most definitely do say it. Maybe my New Year's resolution will be not to use "so" to start sentences. I do remember as kids we'd say, "So what?" and my grandmother would say, "Sew buttons on!" | |||
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If it's any consolation, that use of so has been around for a long time. From the OED Online:
When my kids were young they used to flippantly respond, "So what? Who cares?" Drove me mad. And so not has made into the OED:
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Nowadays their reply is "Whatever". Although since old fogies like us are now fairly familiar with it, they've probably got a different response that they use amongst themselves. Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. | |||
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I asked my youngest daughter, and she's thinking about it. | |||
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And Richard, my punctuation of "its" as "it's" was definitely an error! I am so annoyed when I do that, but I do often find myself adding apostrophes where they don't belong in writing rapidly in threads like these! So sorry! swordmatic | |||
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I thought maybe it was - but the interesting point was that the sentence still worked in context - which is rarely the case. Richard English | |||
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"...I know what you mean about it is being annoying..." Funny. It must be a rightpondian thing, but this sentence is not syntactically correct for me. The about that introduces the complement phrase precludes its being annoying being anything but a gerund. Others? —Ceci n'est pas un seing. | |||
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I agree that it's not a good sentence and the gerund is better. But in the context of the thread - which was to do with the irritation caused by starting sentences with "so" - it made sense. Usually, when "it's" is wrongly used instead of "its" (or vice versa) the resulting phrase makes no sense at all. Richard English | |||
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I agree with you, z. When Richard said it could be either way, I was surprised and wondered if this is a UK/US difference. | |||
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As I wrote, it is far from being a good sentence but it does make awkward sense. My point was that in most constructions, the use of "it's" instead of "its" makes the sentence compete nonsense. For example, "The car is in it's garage" translates as "The car is in it is garage" or "The car is in it has garage", neither of which sentences makes any kind of sense at all. Richard English | |||
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Post deleted by administrator for inflammatory language.This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh, | |||
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