大象传媒 Scotland - 大象传媒 Scotland - Why do so many people start their sentences with 鈥榮o鈥�?

Why do so many people start their sentences with 鈥榮o鈥�?

6 September 2018

It’s a topic that piqued the interest of comedian Limmy, but he wasn’t sure precisely what bothered him about it. So he asked his many Twitter followers — and a lively debate ensued.

How the Twitterverse responded

Limmy was amused by in particular: “It’s like someone has finally got around to telling you something. Like they assume you’ve been patiently waiting for them to finish running their errands for them to tell you whatever [...] they’re going to tell you. Bit arrogant.”

Others offered similarly amusing – and, in many cases, cerebral – suggestions:-

“Attention seekers use ‘So,....’ instead of ‘Everybody, Please look at me. This is important.’ Saves on the 140 characters.” —
“People are scared to make a bold statement, it softens the personal perspective because it sounds like the opening comment of a work meeting where people are reluctant to be the big dominating Id (‘Soooo...’), but it's a bit phony dropped in at the start of multiple sentences.” —
“As if there's an expectation everyone's already hanging on your every utterance and have been waiting for your next bit of wisdom to enlighten their little lives?” —

‘So’ has a distinguished history as a sentence-opener. Chaucer and Shakespeare both used it, for example, so how bad could it be?

Bad enough, it seems, for The New York Times to have devoted to its rise in popularity back in 2010. Bad enough, too, to . And bad enough for on the seemingly-harmless little over the years, including .

Julie Andrews singing the troublesome little word

(As 鈥榮ew鈥� instead of 鈥榮ol鈥�. Close enough, though, right?)

In 2017, 大象传媒 Radio 4 included ‘so’ in their list of . The authors of the book ‘Grammar for Grown-Ups’ offered their thoughts on the matter.

Limmy鈥檚 Best Bits

From Falconhoof to Party Chat, relive some of the Scottish comedian鈥檚 finest moments.
A video playlist for people who love words and grammar geeks.