So, why the hell have people started starting sentences with the word 'so'?

vicwatson

So, are we American all of a sudden?

Where did this evolve from?

Ugh !

Ridiculous.

Immaculate Pasta

So what's your point?

El Weirdo

So what?

Shryke

Wtf is American about saying that. What's the next topic going to be about? "Why do people start conversations with Hello?"

Sister Assumpta

So I've noticed they also use sentences that that turn into questions?

Glico Man

What about those that start a conversation with "Well"... are they turning into Limerick folk?

TheZohanS

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056526338

boobar

So....blast them with piss!

mikemac1

Like whateeeever OP

saa

It's not really the proper use of the word if you think about the definitions of the word so but people say it when they are thinking of what to say like the french say um or ur a lot or some people say it to get someone's attention before asking a question, it is really just a habit.

I broke free from the UM habit when making presentations a few years ago and I don't think I noticed I was doing it before I saw myself on video.
I never felt like "so" was an American thing, "like" would be more of an American thing if that even matters at all.

subway

So, I says to mabel, i says...

Yakult

vicwatson wrote: »

So, are we American all of a sudden?

Where did this evolve from?

Ugh !

Ridiculous.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

boobar

vicwatson wrote: »

So, are we American all of a sudden?

Where did this evolve from?

Ugh !

Ridiculous.

You're dead right, we should all go back to speaking Irish....

Says I to him.....says him to me......

Be de way, "Ugh" is an American word....ya yank!!

The King of Moo

So they can have a pause or draw people's attention before they begin their sentence proper.

castletownman

It's not as annoying as people ending sentences with "man"

brummytom

So I was like hey, and he was like hey. And we were like heyyyyyy. So I was like O.M.G and he was like W.T.F and we were like LOL. It was literally ironic. So yeah.

paddyandy

'So' is a moment's pause to nudge the thinking process OR to catch your attention .

Immaculate Pasta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_ZxX8c

SEPT 23 1989

The Germans

they always start everything

flanders1979

muppets.

Sindri

castletownman wrote: »

It's not as annoying as people ending sentences with "man"

I end all my sentences with brother and respect.:cool:

Respect brother.:cool:






Note:Mods, may we please have a black power emoticon?

Bruthal

castletownman wrote: »

It's not as annoying as people ending sentences with "man"

Worst of all is simples, or, end of.

WindSock

So buttons.

I hate it too. Think its a right smug way to start a sentence.

paddyandy

Rap Singers talking about the Integrity of their Music while everything about them suggests a Criminal Type who's angling for the respectability his tacky business never deserves .

Dudess

Not as bad IMO as starting a sentence with K.

Badgermonkey

vicwatson wrote: »

So, are we American all of a sudden?

I guess

CageWager

strobe

Shryke wrote: »

Wtf is American about saying that. What's the next topic going to be about? "Why do people start conversations with Hello?"

7

So, I'm afraid I'm with Shryke. Dude, it is in no way an 'americanism'. Even if it was, so what?

In general (see what I did there? No? Well fuck you, I'm not here to impress you people :pac:) I think I like the little colloquialisms that litter our speech. I don't really care where they originate. It's just a thing innit? A thing what we do.

LH Pathe

Aww no, have they?? It's daunting you don't wanna have a social anxiety if someone hits you with a "so..." I mean WTF are they going to ask you?!! Its like it's in slo-mo... "sssoooo . . . . . . "

LH Pathe

I recall a lot of Indian people doing this

Sindri

Dudess wrote: »

Not as bad IMO as starting a sentence with K.

What if you're Spanish?;)

¿Qué?

LH Pathe

Attention grammar Nazi!!

Sounds like you need a break, OP

Soho is a wonderful place to visit

Soulless, maybe but it has it's charms.

dxhound2005

strobe wrote: »

7

So, I'm afraid I'm with Shryke. Dude, it is in no way an 'americanism'. Even if it was, so what?

In general (see what I did there? No? Well fuck you, I'm not here to impress you people :pac:) I think I like the little colloquialisms that litter our speech. I don't really care where they originate. It's just a thing innit? A thing what we do.

It did originate in America, probably in Silicon Valley. I have drawn attention to this in various posts before. I just wonder what is in the mind of a poster when they start off the first post in a thread with something like "So I was in town last night" instead of "I was in town last night"

http://boingboing.net/2010/06/17/origins-of-using-so.html

Chuck Stone

You guys are like so whatever.

Yahew

using so to start a sentence pre-dates 1998 and was common here.

gamgsam

I noticed this around a year ago when talking to American friends.

In my experience it's used when they are bringing up a new topic in a conversation, or, more noticably, when they want to steer a conversation some way to get information or gossip out of you. Kind of like probing.

I just excuse myself as soon as I hear it, feckin snoopy yanks!

Yahew

Its not American. Irish people have been doing this for generations.

dxhound2005

Here is an example of a post on Boards starting off with a superfluous So, which is an increasing phenomenon. I don't think it would have happened 5 years ago.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056531000

The new usage in response to questions is also shown in this BBC clip.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9644000/9644002.stm

I would recognise an earlier, perhaps peculiarly Irish, usage such as "So who was that woman I saw you with last night?" but the new usage is somehow different and has been remarked upon by many people on Google.

Overheal

strobe wrote: »

7

So, I'm afraid I'm with Shryke. Dude, it is in no way an 'americanism'. Even if it was, so what?

In general (see what I did there? No? Well fuck you, I'm not here to impress you people :pac:) I think I like the little colloquialisms that litter our speech. I don't really care where they originate. It's just a thing innit? A thing what we do.

I reckon.

dxhound2005

According to this person research on the topic has been surprisingly sparse, probably a way of saying give me more money to do more research.

http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/images/comprofiler/plug_profilegallery/84/pg_2103855866.pdf

Sashiee

So, who's makin' tea then? Ah go on...you basically, totally want to you dirty roide.


tragic average sentence of my housemate...:P

Niles

saa wrote: »

I never felt like "so" was an American thing, "like" would be more of an American thing if that even matters at all.

It depends on where one puts "like" in the sentence, putting it towards the middle is like, so Valley Girl.

But putting it at the end is more of an Irish thing, do you know what I mean like?

Niles

Sindri wrote: »

I end all my sentences with brother and respect.:cool:

Respect brother.:cool:






Note:Mods, may we please have a black power emoticon?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq_SURMi1Mo

senorwipesalot

OP is right,we need to go back to basics and start our sentences with,
Begorrah,Bejeezus or Bejabbers like our forefathers did.

Aidric

Shryke wrote: »

"Why do people start conversations with Hello?"

If you're Lionel Richie it's perfectly fine.

candy-gal1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XoyDqFy5pU

Maserati23

am ya i thought it wasent too bad like, but that was my first time doing anything like that.
but the maths side of it was reasonable enough like, thought that area would be a lot harder.

ya they said that alrite but you know banks they mite not get back to us until the third like, but the agency crowd rang me that day alrite and said they will get back to me if i pass it or not.
so we will know either way.:rolleyes:

Sindri

so/sō/
Adverb:
To such a great extent: "the words tumbled out so fast that I could barely hear them".
Conjunction:
And for this reason; therefore: "it hurt, so I went to see a specialist".
Synonyms:
adverb. thus - such - too - also - that
conjunction. then - that - therefore - so that


So, now do you understand OP.

dxhound2005

Another one for the collection

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056534624

Yahew

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Another one for the collection

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056534624

Another bit of hiberno-English in Ireland?
Shocking.

Yahew

Here's something I have been looking for since this idiocy began. So is hiberno-English. I have heard it all my life, and use it myself, as a declamation. So, are you going to town, is used to move on from the last sentence. Or after a pause. A bit of verbal throat clearing.

Seamas Heaney used So, at the start of his translation of Beowolf, where he uses hiberno-Irish where he thinks it works. He says

Conventional renderings of hwæt, the first word of the poem, tend towards the archaic literary, with ‘lo’, ‘hark’, ‘behold’, ‘attend’ and – more colloquially – ‘listen’ being some of the solutions offered previously. But in Hiberno-English Scullion-speak, the particle ‘so’ came naturally to the rescue, because in that idiom ‘so’ operates as an expression that obliterates all previous discourse and narrative, and at the same time functions as an exclamation calling for immediate attention. So, ‘so’ it was.



Full article here.