So - What's This New Tendency To Reply With The Word "so" Before Saying Anything.

[ToraToraTora]

eg: How old is your grand mother? So, she's 76! aaaarrrgggghhhh! there's a silly moo on the chase tonight and when Brad was doing his little interview she started every single reply with "so...." - anyway nearly put me daisy through the roger!

[kvalidir]

It's an Americanism, my man does it and so does everyone else here, and yes it's really annoying :/

[jno]

it's not uncommon

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Body-and-Soul/Question1620653.html

A throat clearer, I think. Harmless.

[Old_Geezer]

Combination of habir and an attempt to hold once place in the conversation whist getting a little thinking time.

[Old_Geezer]

HABIT !!!

[dannyk13]

On last night's Chase two contestants started every reply with 'so' Anybody else find this irritating ?

[dannyk13]

Almost as irritating as using unintelligible rhyming slang.

[aelmpvw]

it's really irritating , unless the question is 'give me a two letter conjunction beginning with the letter s

[theshedman]

Got to admit it is annoying at times also people that put the word Like in every sentence at least once, often more. Another is comedians who say I have been ................. who else would they have been.

[Ken4155]

Master racehorse trainer, Irishman Aiden O'Brien gets interviewed quite a lot and begins nearly all of his replies with, "Listen now." The longer the interview the more "Listen nows" we have to listen to :-)

[sandyRoe]

You know, 'listen now', isn't that bad.

[gulliver1]

Has TGT gone Radio ?.

[ichkeria]

If you listen to Rory Best the Ireland rugby captain he prefaces nearly every reply with ‘look’ and I’ve heard others do it too. Also ‘100%’ for ‘Yes’ is popular.

[ludwig]

Yes, it's annoying. It doesn't belong at the start of a sentence. It's a word that joins two other statements together, in a kind of cause and effect relationship..e.g...

It was raining today, so I took an umbrella.
The man insulted me, so I punched him in the face.
My GCSE results were good, so I jumped up and down with glee.

..but to answer a question like 'What do you do for a living' with
'So I'm a doctor'. Is just stupid.

The only case I can think of where it makes sense at the start is in the AH rule of so. Where it seems reasonable to begin a reply with
'So, what you're saying andy is......'

[dunnitall]

Awful trend and it grates on me....they don't teach grammar in schools now do they...so they don't know how to 'speak propper hingleesh mate'. Aarrgghh. Loads of these things crop up like innit bruv and ya know....

[Jackdaw33]

The thing is that the word 'so' has so many meanings (see what I mean?). When it means 'therefore' it is perfectly acceptable to start a sentence with 'so', especially after a hiatus.

[LadyCG]

This silly "so" thing really gets on my nerves.

[Ken4155]

So, we're all, like, expressing our dismay at the abuse of proper grammar. Well, listen now, we really shouldn't be getting in a two and eight over this. I've been Ken4155, you've been amazeballs.

[Old_Geezer]

It's something that does no harm, init.

[vulcan42]

Using "so" at the beginning of a sentence depends on what's gone before. If a person is asked what do you do for a living, it doesn't make sense to reply with so I'm a doctor neither would it make sense to say however I'm a doctor. The only time "so" should be used at the beginning is when it replaces "in effect".

[theshedman]

Nice one Ken4155. Got them all in a few sentences.