By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS
So, this is about the word “so.”
If you speak English for work or pleasure, there is a fair chance that you’ve done it, too.
“So” may be the new “well,” new “um,” new “oh” and new “like.” No longer content to lurk in the middle of sentences, it has jumped to the beginning, where it can portend many things: transition, certitude, logic, attentiveness, a major insight.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, late last year: “So, it’s not only because we believe that universal values support human rights being recognized and respected, but we think that it’s in the best interest for economic growth and political stability. So we believe that.”
A dispatch on National Public Radio last month, in which a quarter of sentences began with “so”: “So it’s, I think, the fifth largest in the nation. So, but now that’s the population in general. So there are sort of two, there are two things that are circumstantial.”
A quotation in a report last month from Channel NewsAsia, based in Singapore: “So, what we’re doing is — elephants have had these migratory routes, basically like islands connecting parks between each other; they’ve got nowhere to move and people have encroached on them.
“So, we negotiate with the people to move from the land. So, what we do, we buy the land, build them houses off the corridors and give them exactly the same amount of arable land back.”
A recent news briefing by Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, in which 5 of 21 sentences began with “so”: “So, all those issues, we hope, will be addressed in the report of the secretary general.”
For most of its life, “so” has principally been a conjunction, an intensifier and an adverb.
What is new is its status as the favored introduction to thoughts, its encroachment on the territory of “well,” “oh,” “um” and their ilk.
So, it is widely believed that the recent ascendancy of “so” began in Silicon Valley. The journalist Michael Lewis picked it up when researching his 1999 book “The New New Thing”: “When a computer programmer answers a question,” he wrote, “he often begins with the word ‘so.”‘ Microsoft employees have long argued that the “so” boom began with them.
In the software world, it was a tic that made sense. In immigrant-filled technology firms, it democratized talk by replacing a world of possible transitions with a catchall.
And “so” suggested a kind of thinking that appealed to problem-solving types: conversation as a logical, unidirectional process, proceeding much in the way of software code — if this, then that.
This logical tinge to “so” has followed it out of software. Starting a sentence with “so” uses the whiff of logic to relay authority. Where “well” vacillates, “so” declaims.
To answer a question starting with “well” suggests you are still considering it, don’t know fully but are getting there. To answer with “so” better suits the age, perhaps: A Google-glued generation can look it up where their parents would have said “I don’t know,” Facebook and Twitter encourage ordinary people and not just politicians to stay on message, and we gravitate toward declamatory blogs and away from down-the-middle reporting.
“So” also echoes the influence of a science- and data-driven culture. It would have been unimaginable a few decades ago that literature scholars would use neurological correlation analysis to evaluate texts, or that ordinary people would quantify daily activities like eating, sex and sleeping, or that software would calculate what songs we will like.
But in algorithmic times, “so” conveys an algorithmic certitude. It suggests that there is a right answer, which the evidence dictates and which should not be contradicted. Among its synonyms, indeed, are “consequently,” “thus” and “therefore.”
And yet Galina Bolden, a linguistics scholar who has written academic papers on the use of “so,” believes that “so” is also about a culture of empathy gaining steam in a globalized world.
To begin a sentence with “oh,” she said in an e-mail, is to focus on what you have just remembered and your own concerns. To begin with “so,” she said, drawing on her study of a database of recorded ordinary conversations, is to signal that one’s coming words are chosen for relevance to the listener.
The ascendancy of “so,” Dr. Bolden said, “suggests that we are concerned with displaying interest for others and downplaying our interest in our own affairs,” she said.
“So” seems also to reflect our fraught relationship with time. “Well” and “um” are open-ended; “so” is impatient. It leans forward, seeks a consequence, sums things up. It is a word befitting a culture in which things worth doing must bear fruit now, where it is more fulfilling to day-trade grain futures than to raise grain.
Today we live in fragments. You may be reading this column while toggling among your cellphone, iPad and laptop while eating lunch and proofreading a report. In such a world, “so” may serve to defragment, with its promise that what is coming next follows what just came, said Michael Erard, the author of “Um…: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean.”
The rise of “so,” he said in an e-mail, is “another symptom that our communication and conversational lives are chopped up and discontinuous in actual fact, but that we try in several ways to sew them together — or ‘so’ them together, as it were — in order to create a continuous experience.”
Perhaps we all live now in fear that a conversation could snap at any moment, interrupted by so many rival offerings. With “so,” we beg to be heard. This, we insist, is what you’ve been waiting to hear; this is the “so” moment.
Anand, thanks for this worthwhile discussion.
The short piece linked in comment 27 discriminates interestingly between various uses of “so”. But neither that article nor yours nor any of the comments on it distinguishes between “So” (the conjunct) and “So,” (the adverb). They’re entirely different purposes.
As a conjunct (i.e. without a comma!), “So” may or may not be truthfully suggesting a logical connection with what has preceded it.
As an adverb (i.e. with a comma — but sometimes, inaccurately, represented in writing without the comma), it seems to act only as either a pause (as “Well,” does) or a vanity.
A third, entirely different use of “So” has been consistently overlooked in the comments here on Heaney’s Beowulf translation.
The translation does not begin with “So the Spear-Danes in days gone by”; neither does it begin with “So, the Spear-Danes in days gone by”.
It begins: “So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by…”
Here, “So” is used entirely properly as a particle, whose entire purpose is, as suggested on , to halt the direction of previous discussion and call attention to the speaker’s new purpose.
My apologies: the URL after “suggested on” disappeared upon posting.
“There is a difference between starting a monologue with “so” and beginning an answer with it. I agree with others that this implies the continuation of a nonexistent thought.”
This is the whole point that many are missing in this dicussion. No one is complaining when someone asks, “So, were are we going to lunch?”
What causes me (and, others, it appears) to wince is a reply of, “So, I think we’ll go to Bob’s Cafe”.
It’s usually dropped in at the beginning of a technical or, for lack of a word, intellectual reply.
Whether or not it’s intended, it * does * carry an air of superiority and a command of ‘Hey, look at me!’.
Frankly, I’m pretty oblivious to it * except * when it prefaces the answer to a question. It serves absolutely no purpose.
Yes, many other words serve little to no purpose in our prose and speech, but few others carry a lot of extra baggage. The rest are usually innocuous. “So” prefacing an answer is not.
I’m convinced this is the new smarty-pants reply in a public question answer scenario. “So, by answering in this way it is clear I am highly intelligent and will remember to always answer beginning with the word so in order to impress everyone in the room”…
This is perhaps the most pretentious use of such a tiny word in recent history. I remember Meg Whitman using it in her campaign dialogue with reporters when running for governor of California. People have nailed this as a pseudo techy/Silicon Valley phenomenon. It is right up there with the exhausting overuse of phrases such as “boots-on-the-ground”. Since when did soldiers become boots? Is it easier to lose a pair of boots than an entire human being?
I hope people catch on to the emptiness of expecting to appear intelligent with this new grating habit.
I noticed this first last semester at IIIT. Pretty soon, I too started to “So”!
Starting sentences with “So” probably also gives the sense (illusion?) of a connected conversation, even when it isn’t.
I’ve been growing increasingly angry at the number of dating site profiles that begin “So…” It reads so ugly.
I assumed that if I googled it, I would discover that the usage originated with Bridget Jones’ Diary (which seems to be required reading for women on those sites, at least I’m the UK. That was offputting enough. Now I discover they may all be techie geeks instead. Damn. Looks like I’ll be single for a while longer.
I’m with Socrates on this. I first noticed this when the CEO of my company started doing it last year in our quarterly meetings. It was evident he was forcing himself to start every answer with “so”. After that I started seeing it everywhere. Anytime someone was being interviewed on CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, etc., EVERY answer began with a forced “so,”. It got me wondering if there was an article written in a business mag about how to sound intelligent whether you are or not.
When I hear it I don’t get the impression the speaker is intelligent, rather they project themselves as pretentious and pompous. Honestly it’s more irritating than anything else.
Its utterly wrong and amazingly unintelligent. Its purely a “copy-cat” mentality out there….. thats why you hear so many people making this huge grammatical error.
I’ve only recently noticed people using the word on the business news videos. All of you saying that this is not something new are mistaken. They are almost always people in marketing or CEO’s. I agree that some business magazine suggested that people use “so” when presenting a product or idea. I think it sounds stupid – no doubt cliche.
Hi I just read your recent article on “Men”. It hit a deep chord and moved me to do two things: write a poem “On Men” and send a facebook message to Call to Men for a need to recognize that”the old boy’s network is crumbling” requiring lifting our heard out of the sand. Your comments and e mail so I can dend you the poem. Mel Allerhand
Thank you for this in-depth article on a subject I was curious about. I enjoy listening to software engineering talks and podcasts, and was wondering why this specific culture seems so taken with “so”.
So, I found this website by googling the question “why is everyone using the word “so” to begin a sentence?”. So, I found this information to be so informative. However, it has been my observation the use of “so” is most commonly used by individuals with MBA’s. I watch CNBC and Bloomberg TOO many hours per week and the number of guests using “so” to preface a response has seemed to skyrocket in the past few months.
Almost “like ‘like’”, “so” possesses tremendous capacity to be abused, but that’s no reason for forsaking altogether such a handy word. “So” at the beginning of a sentence anchors a statement in time–as in the however archaic, “So, it was” or, “So be it.”
“So” also helps to eliminate the stuffiness of too many “thus” ~es and “therefore” ~s. Being two characters shorter even than “thus”, “so” has the capacity to eliminate an entire line, which might otherwise carry over even to become a widow on the next page.
“So, begins the process of…; and so, each reader is also….”
What about using the word “listen” at the beginning of a sentence?
The use of the word “So” to start a sentence has been irritating me for some time. In my opinion this usage is totally redundant. The idea that its usage serves to “defragment” is total bunkum, but thanks for advertising the general problem.
I noticed this trend six or seven years ago among my techie colleagues. I have listened to it spread. As of this summer my feeling is that it is used everywhere in the country, by all kinds of people, in spoken language and written. Now I just need to get over wincing every time I hear it, and double wincing when I do it!
Having just listened to an interview on BBC Radio 4 here in the UK, in which each of the first 5 answers were prefaced by the word “so”, I found this discussion on Google. This usage seems to have crossed the Atlantic and has been becoming more prominent here over the last 2 or 3 years. I’m afraid I find it so, so, SO annoying!
I also noticed this while listening to interviews on National Public Radio. I hate it! It comes across as dismissive (along the lines of “As I was saying, before I was interrupted”). “So” also seems to be used as a false connector- sleight-of-mouth used to evade answering a question directly and, instead, help the speaker return to prepared talking points.
Most of these comments (and much of the article) miss the point. “So” is often perfectly natural as the first word in a sentence. What is new, is the use as filler, as a clearing of the throat, so to speak, where it has no attached meaning whatsoever, other than the speaker is not comfortable, just saying their answer directly. It’s a throwaway word, and adds nothing. The only reason that people use it that way, is because they think it makes them sound more scholarly perhaps. It’s an affectation, like holding a cigarette backwards, cupped in your palm, like the Russians do. It has become a fad. It may also serve as a crutch for nervous speakers. It seems to relieve the speaker of the awkwardness of the initial response. If there is a subconscious meaning to it’s use, it may be that it almost smacks of the speaker not actually responding to the question asked, but that the audience has just broken in on a lecture. “So”‘s main conventional use in connecting thoughts makes it natural to use as a verbal clue that you’ve caught a wise lecturer in mid presentation.
I’ve noticed it used in English by non-native Finns, perhaps it replaces a word that they use in their native language.
So what.
Thanks for (I resisted my sophomoric urge to begin this sentence with the word “so”) bringing this irritating verbal tic to the fore. As an all-too-frequent watcher of CNBC, I’ve heard this “so” pattern from many interviewees. One wonders if they’ve been coached to so speak (couldn’t resist.) Whatever the cause, it’s distracting and annoying.
It’s like, I feel, like, that Anand has really like nailed this annoying linguistic tendency! You know, like, when people begin a sentence with ‘So’, it’s … like, such an obvious verbal ‘placeholder’, like the person is just, like, unconsciously injecting their insecurity in an attempt to , like, sound authoritative! These kinds of verbal ‘filler’ words, are, like, so irritating!
I noticed this “meme” of a non-causal use of opening “so” around 5 years ago in the UK, then almost exclusively in the tech/science field, often involving US or “mid-Atlantic”. Users almost always use it to preface an explanation. BBC Radio 4′s “Material World” is a rich and regular source of examples. Now this appears to be spreading to speakers in para-scientific areas, such as economics and sociology. I even heard a theologian using it on talk radio this year! To me, the “so” speaker is showing that they are in the experts club – they have special knowledge – and are condescending to share. A similar meme I have picked up is the pronunciation of the verb “estimate” to rhyme with “but” rather than “late”, making no distinction with the noun. Again, this is spreading between experts in statistics, economics, politics.
The point I think, is not just beginning a sentence with “so” such as, ” so, where were you?” or “so I walking down a dark road, right, and……’” but rather beginning responses to inquries made of the speaker, such as “what do you think of global warming?” with “So, ….”
It is the latter which is relativel new and, I find it disconcerting.
In other words, so, I agree with James B., at 69 above!
How wonderful! An opportunity to vent my absolute REPULSION at this language tick that seems to have reached epidemic proportions. Interviewees who begin their introductory response with the word, “So. . .” drive me up the wall. . .and I make no apology for it.
With great enthusiasm, I make my humble contribution and truly appreciate the opportunity to do so.
I’ve become so averse to hearing this language tick that plagues our intelligently listening public that I’ve reached the point of “zero tolerance” when it’s thrust upon me.
“If he is so inept with his language skills, as educated as he is SUPPOSED to be,” I surmise with a scowl, “he has nothing to say to me!” and I therapeutically respond by slamming my laptop closed.
It used to be that pressing the mute button on my computer would suffice for satisfying my repulsion; but, lately, I’ve begun pressing my laptop completely closed to eliminate the sound of his–or her–voice totally from my ears.
It seems to make no difference what the subject matter is–I simply refuse to listen to a speaker who lacks good basic speaking skills, yet claims knowledge and skill (in whatever field).
An extreme response?
Perhaps–but at least I feel better!
It’s the quickest way that I can deal with my profound irritation of being subjected, on a much-too-regular basis to this cultural phenomenon.
For years, I taught my children, “If you want people to listen to what you have to say, learn to speak well. The importance of speaking well cannot be overestimated!
“Otherwise, those who are as I am, who care about proper English usage, will have their minds on the grammatical errors you made a few sentences back, rather than on the principles of what you’re trying to communicate.”
Several months ago, I decided what I needed to do was write to the program where the offending speaker appeared, find out what the name of the speaker was and write to him–or her–informing the speaker of how irritating that tendency is and that he (or she) lost credibility with many of us because of that tendency to begin sentences with the word, “so” when it is unnecessary.
However, it’s such common usage, now, that I’d be spending half my day writing letters to organizations and individuals who couldn’t care less about how negatively affected so many of us are!
That’s why it is so-o-o refreshing to be able to communicate with others, such as myself, who “get it.”
Just as I do, you notice the misspelled words, the misused words, the possessives that are treated as though they’re contractions, the contractions that are treated as though they’re possessive, and plural pronouns that are so commonly used with singular subjects!
How delightful it was to read Gurujyot Singh’s entry of October 26 (#72)! As I read what he wrote, I laughed out loud.
Thank you for that very well-written response. It made the guest speaker’s faux pas on today’s “Morning Edition” almost worth it!
After having privately wondered in irritation about the growing use of “so”, I finally looked it up, and the responses here are very encouraging. I am relieved to hear that others are as irritated by it as I am! I am noticing that most of the users of “so” at the beginning of a sentence are young-ish, or younger than I am, perhaps 30′s or younger….I was at a talk last night and one participant answered EVERY question posed to him with “so”. I am sometimes a snob when it comes to diction and language, but really, this is terrible! If I start doing it myself, my friends have been instructed to shoot me!
Now the word “so” is being used at the end of sentences.
It used to be used as a conjunction with minimal emphasis. Now, people make a point and immediately at the end of their sentence is SO. As if they are worried that know one will listen if they don’t tag it on there. It’s the beginning, the middle and the end of sentences, and it’s EVERY SINGLE PERSON I hear. Are we that unaware of what we are speaking? It’s worse than “at the end of the day” and “the reality is.” I miss and and but. The thing I hate the most is a clone.
It mostly is a way for people to try to fit in. Why must we be such copycats? You’ll also hear people in talk radio saying aaaaaand…. thaaaaaaat…. soooooooo…. thanks Obama.
I watch CNBC all day coz I am a day trader. When they are interviewing financial analysts and CEO’s etc I am amazed!!! ‘
About 75% of them now begin every answer to a question with “So,…”!!!!! To me it actually sounds like they are blatantly changing the subject but then they go ahead and answer the question.
So strange, but it shows how fast people will follow the herd.
My other one is how every American now orders food by saying “Can I have….” To me it sounds like they are asking if the restaurant still has the food in stock, as in “Can I have the blue fin marlin….or did you run out?” I always politely “I will have….”
Me from the last post again. I just realized I use “So” at the beginning of a sentence when I say “Yeah, so, I went to the zoo the other day” or I could say it without the “Yeah” I mainly use it only when I’m changing the subject and that is why it’s bizarre sounding to me when people start an answer to a direct question with a casual “so” at the beginning. I may be part of the problem myself, though, when it comes to using it in the way I mentioned I do.
I’m SO happy that this improper use of the word “So,” when used at the beginning of a sentence, and usually after being asked a simple question, is being questioned and publicly raked over the coals so to speak.
I have been incredibly irritated by coworkers, friends, TV and radio personalities, and even myself, for using the word “So,” to begin a sentence where it sits there and tries, rather unsuccessfully if you ask me, to imply some kind of feigned superiority over the audience. I completely agree with comment #39 here… and had a “YAY!!” moment after reading this…
************
To me, it sounds like the person is saying: “. I was just about to tell you this, but I had to wait through your lame and redundant question. Are you done asking? Have your lips stopped flapping? Okay, then; I’ll continue. So…”
************
Right-On! Yes, that’s exactly how a person sounds when they start their sentences with the word “So,”. Kind of like, So, let me tell you how this works, (and by the way, I didn’t listen to a thing that you just said).
Now, I know that most people do not think that it sounds this way, but in reality, or subconsciously, it does, and has been used as an effective tool in convincing the audience that the speaker is absolutely right. Which of course, they may, or may not be.
I don’t see this trend ending anytime soon, but I’m trying my best to not use it this way. It just sounds disrespectful to my ear, and judging by the number of comments here, to many others as well.
Well, ‘so’ is also somewhat imperious if not a tab rude. It is also one those viruses following on from “very much so” and “literally.” Good authoratative speakers use none of these irrating redundancies except perhaps for “indeed.” So here is one for the pot: in English we say awe-thor (author), awe-tism (autism)etc but where on earth did okshun (auction) come from?
AW
I’m another one who found this post as a result of searching for a confirmation of my belief that the use of “so” to begin a response to a question is relatively new, increasingly prevalent and extremely annoying. I agree that it comes across as the equivalent of, “As I was saying before you so rudely insisted on speaking…” or as the premature wrapping up and confirmation of an argument that has, in fact, yet to be made.
Commnenters Dan Mulligan and Kelly Carter, on Chris Stokel-Walker’s related post at http://stokelwalker.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/so-why-do-people-think-that-so-is-new/, suggest that it’s used in place of “um”, “I mean,” “you know,” and similar place-holders or stalling-for-time utterances and that it is less objectionable. I’m trying get myself to agree with them and in future be less irritated by the phenomenon. Time will tell.
It’s interesting to me how much this trend annoys the hell out of me. I know that it is not intended this way, but to begin an answer with the word “So” conveys to me the following: “To get back to my own train of thought, which was so rudely disrupted by your question…” “So” literally means “Thus,” which demands an antecedent. In an answer, the antecedent clearly cannot be coming from the questioner; a question presumes the lack of an answer, so to answer with an antecedent coming from the question would be pointless. So the antecedent must be whatever the answerer was pompously blathering on about before the question was asked. Hence my annoyance at this trend. Doubtless the rise of “Well” to begin sentences irritated my forebears.
It is refreshing to hear all the responses to this article. Count me in as one of those annoyed by the use of “so” and a slight pause to begin an answer to an interviewer’s question. I agree that this seems to be the most rampant in the technology and intellectual communities and I notice it most on interviews I hear on NPR. That is probably because I listen to NPR a great deal so I am sure it is as rife elsewhere.
Another one I have been noticing is starting similar responses with the word “sure”. I think I am finding this even more annoying than “so”.
I agree with the last three posters. It annoys me, I looked on Google for “so” being the new “uh” and found this page, and I hear it disproportionately on NPR than any other place.
To begin one’s answer to a query with “so” is improper, but seems to be gaining in usage. It must be some kind of affectation, but grates on my ear, and makes the speaker sound shallow.
It has warmed my heart to hear so many express so well the concern, if not consternation, I myself have felt regarding the use of “so” at the beginning of an answer. I had some vague ideas of what has bothered me about its use, but you all have catalogued a respectable array of specific annoyances engendered by this practice I consider totally annoying. So thanks to you all for your astute observances!!
For a long while I have thought that this usage was taught by media trainers to those who might be questioned by reporters or by attorneys in mass tort lawsuit depositions. I imagined that the purpose of the tic was to blunt or deflect the implications of the question to which the “so” answer was responding. Now I am not so sure (sorry).
Thank You People!
So I was getting irritatingly discouraged when it took 4-5 different “increase of the word ‘so’ to begin a sentence” combinations when searching GOOG before I landed here.
I too find it prominent on CNBC, but it is really everywhere with the non-recurring guest. Not a guest like Dennis Miller who appears every week on The Factor, for example.
This trend that begun in 2010 has become parabolic in 2012. I am convinced it is being taught somewhere like suggested before by an interview or talking head coach – as opposed to copycat. This is why I think it is only really happening with newer, younger, first-time guests. The experienced are not in need of a coach, therefore they are not exposed to the new teaching.
*The biggest offenders – guests who are showing items lined up on a table such as new gadgets or low-carb food options, for example. 90% of all of these people, like on the Today Show or your local morning news, begin every single response including their initial response with it.
I agree with Tom in #18 that is:
“used as a false connector- sleight-of-mouth used to evade answering a question directly and, instead, help the speaker return to prepared talking points.”
….or also not even to return to the prepared talking point or script – but to begin the prepared script that has been rehearsed 50 times the night before.
So persistent and annoying is this widely prevalent and incorrect usage of the word “so,” that, a year later, I feel compelled to rail against it! I can fully appreciate that the bad habit of using the word “so” at the beginning of EVERY sentence began in Silicon Valley. In 1983, after having earned a master’s degree in psychology; having written dozens of papers and a master’s thesis, yet unable to find a job in my field, I trained to become a computer technician. I ultimately found myself working with people who were extremely bright, but functionally illiterate. My colleagues, as well as engineers, software engineers, programmers, etc., could not spell to save their lives. They could not tell the difference between the words “there,” “they’re,” or “their,” which they used interchangeably, completely ignorant of the difference. This practice, itself, I believe, came from relying on “spell-checkers” in word processing and text editing programs which haven’t the first clue what the meaning of one’s writing is, it’s merely looking for misspelled words. Since any of the three forms of “there…” are spelled correctly, the software ‘passes’ them.
So (and this is a correct use of the word “so,”), it is no wonder that a person who has a great fluency in a programming language, but no affinity whatsoever for a literary or spoken language, like English, would fall into the habit of using “so” at the start of a sentence – indeed, of EVERY sentence!
So annoying is this practice that it causes me to cringe at every instance – no less than dragging fingernails along a blackboard!
The real question is, ‘would it be improper to shoot people who begin every sentence with the word “so?”
Follow Up:
So I found a classic video excerpt from CNBC April 18, 2012.
So I just found an explosion from Silicon Valley.
Google AdWords associates have live online help chat and post it to YouTube.
It’s unreal.
Google Live Help Chat on YouTube.