I like it !
(your comment, that is)
I’m like pleased to receive your like!!
So, what about the use of the word “so” as the first word in almost any opening sentence?
E.G.
So what did you do today?
So I’m going out for a walk.
So that Naim Forum is full of strange ideas.
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Quite simple - any post or thread that begins with So in the wrong context, is instantly on the ignore list.
It’s a moronic ridiculous way of speaking, and despite numerous attempts on here and elsewhere to justify it it’s almost always wrong, apart from very specific occasions when it has a correct use e.g. a follow-on thought or confirmation of a previous idea.
Watch any edition of Pointless and you’ll encounter it numerous times:
“Let’s welcome Julie, from Birmingham. What do you do Julie?”
"So I’m a… " and that’s it. Mute for 5 seconds, I don’t want to hear thick idiots.
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Irritating it most definitely is, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a product of stupidity, just a lack of thought and/or (bad) habit.
Mark
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Listening to interviews on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme in the morning, it is commonplace for intelligent and articulate people of real importance to start sentences with “So”.
So I think just ignoring them is probably neither justified nor appropriate. (Hopefully this use of “So”, unlike the deliberately provocative example in my last post, is not going to make HHN swipe away to another thread.)
Best
David
So shouldn’t this thread be merged with the existing one…
OR
This thread should so be merged with the existing one…
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It’s become a thing though, much like slipping the word like in every few words was, or ending sentences on a rising inflection, and using get in place of have when asking to be served something.
The speaker or writer may not actually be thick or stupid, regardless in my mind that person is instantly demoted to halfwit status.
In speech there’s an apparent justification claimed that using it as a placeholder or as means of flagging up that the speaker is about to speak makes it correct. It isn’t. It’s terrible habit. In written English it has no place at all. Witness the threads that begin:
“So I have a 250-DR and blurble blergh gleurgh…”
What on earth is the word So doing, in that context? Nothing, except to identify the writer as a dimwit who can safely be ignored, even where the exact issue raised is one that I might comfortably offer guidance. Yes - I despise it to that extent.
4 Likes
I disagree. By definition anyone who begins “So…” is neither articulate or erudite. Beginning with So removes that claim from their list of achievements.
I hear Today daily, and notice that the confident, the well-briefed, the knowledgeable; these people all begin their responses correctly. Those who are seemingly unsure or are reciting from a list of prepared answers to what are usually different questions, are the ones that show themselves up.
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I don’t supposed anyone is bothered if you choose to not listen to what they are saying.
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Maybe you should try being less judgemental. You could have an absolutely lovely person doing wonderful things, who just happens to use the odd so, or like, or get their me and their I confused, or some elitist pillock with perfect language who achieves nothing useful and is just a big bag of wind. There’s a lot of them around unfortunately. Some may even be here on our wonderful Forum, spouting off about people being thick or dimwits or not worth bothering with. It’s all rather unpleasant.
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Me ne vidn cewsel Sawznek!
anybody can read this?
Indeed. You may have noticed I bother with this place an awful lot less these days. It’s full of the sort of people I’ve come to dislike hugely, and who manage to get on my wick for many and various reasons. It used to be fun here but it’s not - cause and effect no doubt; chicken and egg. Etc.
I’m sure your great leader Richard will be pleased to see the back of me, as will you.
Toodle-pip.
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I agree that it is totally superfluous and somewhat annoying. It seems to have replaced “Well”, as in “Well, I’m a…”
What ‘sort of people’ is that exactly?
I’ll defer to your age and experience, I’m afraid I’ve only seen it on pub signs looking up after being thrown out 
I get a little sad when people use ‘if’ rather then ‘whether’ - which is a word that seems to be used less often as time goes by, sadly. ‘Whether’, in this instance, may be somewhat more appropriate because presumably you suspect that no-one is bothered if he does choose to listen to what they are saying.
Of course, you may not be addressing yourself to that case, in which situation ‘if’ is entirely appropriate.
Quite often when I get a form of service from a young person (up to approx 30’s), I thank them and often that person would reply “no worry” or “no worries”. I am not complaining, I think its cute, fits the language and is self explanatory; an evolution of language. But when the person would say " I was sat right there" this is an attack on grammar, it sounds wrong and to give it an analogy it is as if a new thinking came out on maths that 1 + 1 = 3 and it catches on everywhere (media, socially on serious discussions etc), people will argue its an evolution of maths and don’t see the problem but 1 + 1 = 2 (oh lets ignore this…)
I think if I had added “or not” at the end, “whether” would have been more appropriate than “if”, but I’m happy with “if” in the sentence that I wrote.
Best
David
1 Like
Quite - the original posting is presumably ironic: it seems highly improbable that everyone would be disinterested when being not listened to when they are conversing. Most people would be at least mildly irked at being ignored…
Incidentally, from a technically grammatically perspective choosing NOT to listen isn’t quite the same as whether or not to choose NOT to listen - in one it is the act of choosing that is being rejected, in the other it’s the act of listening…