General Chat

I hate the way everyone(not everyone of course lol ) starts what they say with the word SO.

I had a call from Sky the other day asking if I was happy with the service and loads of questions - every time I answered the man said "awesome" :-S

Here's a thing to cogitate.

So a while back, one of the contestants on Frank Skinner’s ‘Room 101’ chose the word ‘so’ as her pet hate. So she didn’t mean the word ‘so’ in every use and context, only the way that people had started to use it fairly often at the beginning of a sentence, particularly in response to a question. By adding ‘so’ in this fashion, the lady guest reckoned the speaker sounds incredibly patronising.

Unfortunately I can’t for the life of me remember who that contestant was & so it doesn't matter. Being a boring old scribbler from way back when I learned how to use joined-up letters using a quill & ink-well, I'm just a trifle on the sad side of obsessive about words, although others may disagree. So what!

So, ever since then, all I can hear is people answering questions with sentences starting with ‘so’. It’s driving me crazy. So, at first I tried to put it down to being simply that phenomenon when you think of something and then can’t stop spotting it - like Donald Trump’s hairdo or David Cameron's luminous forehead, for example.

This new ‘so’ is almost iconically pandemic. Those on the radio and TV who believe they possess a tiny piece of knowledge that the audience might not understand, thinks that if they start their answer with ‘so’, it will for some bizarre reason make their answer clearer, while preserving their image as some kind of superior being with esoteric knowledge that they are deigning to share with us - the linguistically challenged listening Plebs.

“So EBOLA is not an airborne virus, which means it’s cannot be carried on the air.” “So cows eat the grass and then we milk the said animals and make the cheese from the milk.”

So, it’s getting to me. It’s not the word ‘so’ that irks me particularly - it's not yet a recognised rude word which should not be uttered in front of your mum - but more the way it’s now being used or misused. We all know language is an amorphous entity, with culture and technology providing new words, but it’s people like us who choose which ones we want to retain or leave behind.

I love the process as it keeps us scribblers on our toes while offering a zeitgeist insight into the minds, styles and preferences of our society. So, the next time you hear somebody giving an explanation starting with ‘so’, tippex over the word in your mind and see if their sentence suffers in the slightest. I don’t think so.

PS: So in my next Epistle, I might nominate another excessively used word - 'like'. So, would you like that?

Stunning. :-| I saw someone describe a baby as 'stunning'. No No No! cute gorgeuos, pretty, but not 'stunning'!

Det - anyone other than a Politician :-D

'Hard working people'

They might well be paid to work, but how do you define working hard? Most people turn up, do what they are paid to do, then go home at the end of the day. :-S

Iconic. Just about anything that isn't epic is iconic.

Please, please, please would someone teach journalists, commentators etc that the word unique cannot be qualified. Very unique, most unique etc are nonsense, and as for.......no, better not get started or I'll be here all night :-D

"Hilarious" a particular favourite of the caption writers to photos in the DM, as in
" Hilarious moment cat falls off washing machine" .

There are so many superlatives these days that I notice...

Incredibly,amazing etc...how many have others noticed?.

It's the fact that they keep repeating them over and over.

Another thing is not pronouncing t's...

Remember when BBC English was required to get a job on radio/TV?

I don't expect it to go that far,but pronunciation was so important in school and spelling!...not just for the elite,but everyone,

"absolutely" is the one that drives me up the wall - people use it instead of "yes" - Why? do they think it makes them seem more important than they are?

There is a comment in this week's Radio Times about overuse of the word epic. So many programmes are now described as epic that it has ceased to have any meaning.

The example given was a wildlife programme, suitable for family viewing. Interesting - yes; entertaining - yes; educational - yes; but EPIC - No!

My choice is exciting. No, BT, the amendments to my broadband package do not excite me in the least!

Neither does the fact that the bedcovers I bought recently are now available in several other "exciting" colours!!

Nor, for that matter, do the so-called improvements to this website. :-(

Any other suggestions?