# English: 'So' as a preface to an answer



## rhitagawr

Since when have people been using _So_ as a preface to an answer? I've noticed it a few times recently.

_What's your name?
So I'm Frank.
And where do you live, Frank?
So I live in Northampton.
And how old are you, Frank?
So I'm 28.
And what do you do for a living, Frank?
So I'm a teacher._

It's beginning to get on my wick.


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## Stoggler

It's not something I've noticed.  

But now you've pointed it out, I'll probably hear it all of the time and it'll start to get on my wick!

What I have noticed is people started responses with "Look,..." when asked a question, which can come across as rather forthright or something approaching rudeness (it does to me anyway), but it's being used by some speakers quite a lot.  I first noticed it a few years ago among Australians (e.g. the swimmer Ian Thorpe when working for the BBC the last two Olympic Games, many Australian cricketers when being interviewed, my friend who has lived in Oz for over a decade) and it seems to have spread to English cricketers who have spent time around Aussies or who have played in Australia (e.g. Andrew Strauss, Alistair Cook).  Anyone else noticed this?


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## rhitagawr

I've noticed _So_ on Pointless. What an admission! But I'm sure people say it elsewhere. I'm not interested cricket, but I'll have to listen out for _Look_. I'd take it to mean that the other person thought I was stupid.


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## fdb

French "alors" and German "also" are used in the same way, a moment of delay before answering the question.


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## Cenzontle

I haven't heard it in the context after a question, as in your examples.
Where I do hear it is in absolute initial position, to initiate a conversation:
"So, how do you know Fred and Emily?"
I call it a "pseudo-connector"—it implies connection with something that preceded it, even though nothing did.
Some people are irritated by it, but I take it as a friendly pretense that we have some prior basis for conversation.  An ice-breaker.


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## shawnee

Cenzontle said:


> Where I do hear it is in absolute initial position, to initiate a conversation:
> "So, how do you know Fred and Emily?"
> I call it a "pseudo-connector"—.


This is my experience also.


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## wtrmute

To me, it's a phatic expression.  It serves to signal to the listener that a response is forthcoming, same as a "well", "you know" or "you see".  He could say SYN, as well


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## jamesh625

I my experience, when responding to a question, "so" will precede some information that precedes the actual answer tot he question.
"What do you do for work?"
"So, I just got back from a 10 year hermitage in Nepal, so I haven't got  job at the moment..."
It's a bit weird with the two "so"'s, I admit.


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## Forero

Cenzontle said:


> I haven't heard it in the context after a question, as in your examples.
> Where I do hear it is in absolute initial position, to initiate a conversation:
> "So, how do you know Fred and Emily?"
> I call it a "pseudo-connector"—it implies connection with something that preceded it, even though nothing did.
> Some people are irritated by it, but I take it as a friendly pretense that we have some prior basis for conversation.  An ice-breaker.


At the start of a conversation, it means more (just a little) to me than "friendly pretense", but I too have never heard "so" at the start of an answer, as in #1 or in #8, which is weird.


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## Gavril

I have heard this usage from time to time, but I couldn't tell you when it started. Maybe it is more common overall in the US than in the UK.

The use of _so_ to introduce a response seems to me like another example of the more general, conversational usage of _so._ _so_ can be used to pick up where you've left off ("So, as I was saying ...") or to introduce a topic ("So, did you hear that rain is expected today?"), and a response to a question can fit under either of these categories, especially the latter.


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## Dan2

I hear "So" as the first word in response to a question a lot here in the US (but not to one short question after another as in Post 1, clearly an exaggeration).  I'm not a fan of this "So".  (I claim to be a descriptivist but I still don't like it...)  But I tell myself, and would suggest to others: consider how universal and acceptable the equally content-free "Well," is as an answer-beginner.  Maybe these "So" users have simply added yet another use to the several that "so" already has: as a synonym of interjection "well".  And in fact, if you replace this "So" with "Well" the result is something perfectly natural:
- Where do you spend your vacations?
- So I really like Europe, especially Italy.
- Well I really like Europe, especially Italy.


Stoggler said:


> What I have noticed is people started responses with "Look,..." when asked a question, which can come across as rather forthright or something approaching rudeness (it does to me anyway), but it's being used by some speakers quite a lot.


This is very common in the US.  While it _can _express annoyance, often it means something like "Try to understand (because admittedly this is difficult)" (perhaps even an admission by the speaker that he hasn't been clear so far): "Look, all I'm saying is that there are several different factors here...".  I don't hear this (American) use of "Look" as rude per se.  I use it myself.


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## elianecanspeak

I have heard the "so" that initiates a conversation for many years in the U.S., equivalent to "well" or "by the way" in English, "nu" in Yiddish, which I think originally comes from the Russian, "alors" in French, and "bueno" in Spanish.           "So how are you doing?"

The "so" as the beginning of a response sound very Yiddish in context to me : "So I walked in hoping to find more"; "So I'm a Jewish woman from Queens".

It is also a more general phenomenon according to this  New York Times article : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/22/us/22iht-currents.html?_r=0


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## OBrasilo

Dan2 said:
			
		

> - Where do you spend your vacations?
> - So I really like Europe, especially Italy.
> - Well I really like Europe, especially Italy.


Incidentally, the Littoralese dialect of Slovenian, as well as Italian, sometimes use "ma" this way. To translate your sentence:
"Kje si bil na počitnicah?
- Ma mi je zelo všeč Evropa, še posebej Italija."
Or in Italian:
"Dove sei stato in vacanza?
- Ma mi piace molto l'Europa, specialmente l'Italia."
or
"- Sai, mi piace molto l'Europe, specialmente l'Italia."
or even
"- Guarda, mi piace molto l'Europe, specialmente l'Italia."
or even
"- Be', mi piace molto l'Europe, specialmente l'Italia."

And it was pointed out that French does it to with "alors", and Spanish with "bueno", so English might have got the practice from these two languages.


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## dojibear

rhitagawr said:


> What's your name?
> So I'm Frank.
> And where do you live, Frank?
> So I live in Northampton.
> And how old are you, Frank?
> So I'm 28.



To me it is somewhat common to hear *So...* like this (no comma, no pause) to say you're jumping into a story. It sounds like it should be written lowercase, like *"...so *I used to work in Boston, and one day...". Frank may be an extreme case of this. Or he is just odd.

Much more common is *So,* (the comma shows a pause) or *Well, *or *Hey, *or *Now, *at the start of speaking. There are many similar expressions. Some are used at the start, some as a pause in the middle (*,like, *in New York, *and so* or *anyhow *elsewhere). Each region or subgroup (hippies?) has a few in their dialect. 

Several people above post examples of this in English or other languages. One poster calls them *phatic expressions* which wikipedia says are used socially but have no meaning.

I've seen something similar in Japanese team meetings. The group leader would often "have the floor", talking for several minutes. But every 30 seconds or so, he made a long pause. Then he or a listener would drop in a standard phrase like *so desu ne*... (that's true, isn't it), *ano ne... *(well), *honto...* (true), *soredewa...* (and so), and he would start speaking again. Wikipedia calls these expressions "Aizuchi".


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## Uriel-

_So_ is also used in the US in a set, slangy way to introduce an ironic thought: _So that happened._ It lets you know the tone of what is about to follow: if someone starts out a sentence with, _So I was with my brother..._ you know that they are about to tell you a juicy story that probably ends badly or at least has some twisted payoff that you need to pay attention to.  This would not be implied if you just started out with the standard _I was with my brother...._


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## sound shift

rhitagawr said:


> Since when have people been using _So_ as a preface to an answer? I've noticed it a few times recently.
> 
> _What's your name?
> So I'm Frank.
> And where do you live, Frank?
> So I live in Northampton._


I haven't come across this yet.


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