Hey, it's Annemarie with Speak Confident
English. This is where you want to be to learn
how to say what you want in English with confidence.
This week I want to answer a question from one of my students.
Back in July during one of my Fluency School courses,
Zuleima asked me a fantastic question. She wanted to know about this tiny
little word in English-so. She lives in Australia and she has heard
native speakers use this word in so many different expressions and phrases,
for example: So many.
So much. Even so.
I don't think so. I hope so.
I'll do so. Not so much.
So, so.
So long as. So what?
And so on. Those are just a few examples of the
different ways we might use this little word in English and,
in fact, this word is one of the top most 100
used words in English and that means it's definitely a word that you should
know how to use and be able to understand it when you hear native
speakers say it.
In today's lesson, I'm going to share with you several ways
that we use the word so and why, so that you can use it in your daily
English conversation and do it with confidence.
So number one, we use this word to help us link ideas
or transition to a new topic or idea. Let me give you some examples.
If you're leading a business meeting, when everyone is present and you're
ready to get started, you might transition into the business
meeting with something like: "so
let's get started for today." Or if you're in a conversation with
someone and you want to transition to a new topic,
you can do it easily by saying: "so
I heard you started a new job." And several weeks ago,
I did a lesson on how to answer uncomfortable questions in English.
For example, if someone has ever asked you why you're
still single or do you have kids and you're not really comfortable answering
that question,
a great way to respond is: "so
could we talk about something else?" In all of those examples,
I'm using the word so to link ideas or transition to a new topic.
The word so is also used when we mean very or to a great extent.
For example, you've probably heard someone say thank
you very much and we also say thanks so much.
Or perhaps you're complaining about a colleague because she's always so late
to work. Then of course we have so much,
so many, so little and so few.
Here are some examples of how we use that every day.
"I have so much to do at work today and so
little time." Or "why
were there so few people at the conference?"
Similarly, we have more so and less so to help us
compare things. For example,
if I want to compare maybe my old job to my current job,
I could say: "My
old job was crazy busy, but thankfully my new job is less so
now."
This tiny little word is also super useful for helping us reduce the number
of words that we use or avoid repeating words.
Here are a few examples. Perhaps a store where you live has a
unique discount for regular customers, but you're not sure that it's true.
So you might go to the store and say, "I
heard you have a discount for regular customers.
Is it true that you have a discount?" That's a lot of extra words and I'm also
repeating a few words so instead I could say:
"I heard you have a discount for regular
Here's another example. Recently in one of my classes,
a student asked me if I have any plans for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday
and my response could have been: "Yes,
I think I have some plans for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday."
It's a lot of extra words and I can make it much simpler by saying:
"Yeah, I think so."
Or I hope so!
If I asked you if you have any travel plans for next summer,
what could you say? You might say,
I think so. I hope so.
Or even I'm planning to do so. And finally we can also use the word to
emphasize what we're saying. One of the things that I love to say is
that's so awesome. It's not just awesome.
It's so awesome. I'm emphasizing just how awesome it is.
This is similar to using it for very or to a great extent.
We can also use it before a negative. For example,
in this sentence: "He
was late to work again-that's so not cool."
That's so not cool. I love that expression.
It's definitely an informal one. I would not recommend using it with your
boss or in a professional email, but it's great with your colleagues and
your friends. I'm curious,
have you ever had someone do something at work and you thought,
oh, that's so not cool?
And now you have several different ways that we use this tiny popular word,
so, in English and why we use it.
Now,
before we get to the practice activity, you've learned a lot of different ways
to use this word today. In the online lesson,
I've provided some extra practice. I have a dialogue that you can review
that uses many of these same phrases and even some new ones so you can really get
familiar with how to use this word in your daily English conversations.
Now, as you've learned,
there are so many ways to use this word, so,
so are you ready to practice? How could you respond to these three
phrases using the word so in your answer?
Number 1, imagine you and I are going to lunch.
We sit down at the restaurant and I ask you,
does this restaurant have vegetarian food?
What could you say? Number 2,
we're at the restaurant, we've ordered our food and it's taking a
really long time, so I say "I'm
so hungry" and you want to respond telling me that
you feel the same way. How could you do that?
Here's a hint. You might need to review the dialogue in
the online lesson to get the right answer.
And finally, number 3,
while we're having lunch, we're talking about one of our
colleagues and I say, I can't believe she was late to work
again. How would you respond?
As always, you can share your answers with me below
this video and in the comments section of the online lesson with that.
Have a fantastic week and I look forward to seeing you in the next Confident
English lesson.