3 ms·

Improper grammar, starting a sentence with so or this

4 points by jebblue 11y ago

So I wanted to harp briefly on how irritating it is for a lot of us to read sentences that start with so. This. What, was that a sentence?

mikehawkins 11y ago
I'm a bit guilty of this myself - I tend to use this in emails, when trying to give the feel of an informal conversation. So... I'm curious what you think about this case? ;)
- thomasrossi 11y ago
  I do this all the time:(
vezzy-fnord 11y ago
What about "now", "well", "you know", "then", "I mean" and "basically"?
ChuckMcM 11y ago
I'm tempted to say "because language". But I won't. The language is evolving and in the written electronic modality it is becoming increasingly common to start a sentence with 'So' or 'This.' which infer an inclusion or endorsement of the previous writing and then add upon it. It can bug you but you can't keep people from changing the rules by using the language in a way they like. That has been happening since the first campfire.
- dctoedt 11y ago
  > you can't keep people from changing the rules by using the language in a way they like. True enough; I still go into shaddup-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn mode, though, when I see impact used as a verb or their as a singular pronoun.
akg_67 11y ago
When you start to complain about things because you are set in your ways and start to expect things to always happen the way they used to, like my wife tells me, your are getting old!! This is all part of evolution, accept it and worry about things that are more important to you. I may find SMS lingo annoying but that is the way communication and language is evolving so be it. For a change, I like how people have started to accept that you understand the context of conversation and don't have to worry about someone interjecting questions like "Who are they?" in conversations.
lovelearning 11y ago
how irritating it is for a lot of us You mean you did some kind of a survey to reach this conclusion?
Rifu 11y ago
So... what exactly are you trying to say here
dragonwriter 11y ago
> So I wanted to harp briefly on how irritating it is for a lot of us to read sentences that start with so. So, I wanted to harp briefly on how irritating it is for a lot of us to read sentences where people neglect to use commas and quotation marks where appropriate. > This. What, was that a sentence? "This," as a standalone sentence, offered in response to other content is an idiom, used particularly online, wherein the speaker expresses endorsement of the content the sentence is offered in response to, essentially, "this" stands in for the entire body of the referenced content and adopts it as the position of the speaker using "this" as well as that of the original source of the content. Its not a sentence composed of words in their general meaning, its a special one-word idiomatic construct with a specialized meaning in a particular context.

4 points by jebblue 11y ago

So I wanted to harp briefly on how irritating it is for a lot of us to read sentences that start with so. This. What, was that a sentence?

mikehawkins 11y ago

I'm a bit guilty of this myself - I tend to use this in emails, when trying to give the feel of an informal conversation. So... I'm curious what you think about this case? ;)

thomasrossi 11y ago
I do this all the time:(

vezzy-fnord 11y ago

What about "now", "well", "you know", "then", "I mean" and "basically"?

ChuckMcM 11y ago

I'm tempted to say "because language". But I won't. The language is evolving and in the written electronic modality it is becoming increasingly common to start a sentence with 'So' or 'This.' which infer an inclusion or endorsement of the previous writing and then add upon it. It can bug you but you can't keep people from changing the rules by using the language in a way they like. That has been happening since the first campfire.

dctoedt 11y ago
> you can't keep people from changing the rules by using the language in a way they like. True enough; I still go into shaddup-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn mode, though, when I see impact used as a verb or their as a singular pronoun.

akg_67 11y ago

When you start to complain about things because you are set in your ways and start to expect things to always happen the way they used to, like my wife tells me, your are getting old!! This is all part of evolution, accept it and worry about things that are more important to you. I may find SMS lingo annoying but that is the way communication and language is evolving so be it. For a change, I like how people have started to accept that you understand the context of conversation and don't have to worry about someone interjecting questions like "Who are they?" in conversations.

lovelearning 11y ago

how irritating it is for a lot of us You mean you did some kind of a survey to reach this conclusion?

Rifu 11y ago

So... what exactly are you trying to say here

dragonwriter 11y ago

> So I wanted to harp briefly on how irritating it is for a lot of us to read sentences that start with so. So, I wanted to harp briefly on how irritating it is for a lot of us to read sentences where people neglect to use commas and quotation marks where appropriate. > This. What, was that a sentence? "This," as a standalone sentence, offered in response to other content is an idiom, used particularly online, wherein the speaker expresses endorsement of the content the sentence is offered in response to, essentially, "this" stands in for the entire body of the referenced content and adopts it as the position of the speaker using "this" as well as that of the original source of the content. Its not a sentence composed of words in their general meaning, its a special one-word idiomatic construct with a specialized meaning in a particular context.