How to Use 'So' in English and Why You Should—with Speak Confident English

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

customers. Is that so?"

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.