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one of the more recent courts of the
English language is the use of the word
so when beginning a sentence there are a
few reasons to object to this one reason
a practical reason is that it's usually
unnecessary the sentence itself would be
exactly the same without it so this has
been kind of a campaign over the last
few years so let's be clear about health
care so in college I was a government
major so um there's a song that I wrote
so maybe you could sort yourself vote in
each of these examples you could remove
the so and the sentence the meaning and
the message is unchanged
so it's filler so and that leads into
the second reason a rhetorical reason
phrased in the form of a rhetorical
question
why use filler words get to the point
just say it starting off with a so makes
you sound unsure uncomfortable and
uninterested that speaks to the third
reason a superficial reason to object to
this it's annoying if you want to make a
good impression starting a sentence with
so is so not the right way to do that
right right right
or I unless is it is it ever right to
start a sentence with so so the answer
to that question is actually sometimes
the word so is a conjunction other
coordinating conjunctions include or for
nor but yet and and rounding out the
acronym fanboys and allegedly there's a
rule that says that you should not begin
a sentence with a conjunction now if
this is something that you were taught
in school it isn't because it's actually
true it's because your teacher wanted to
keep you and all of the other kids from
overusing these conjunctions which kind
of makes sense you could just imagine
someone younger than 12 beginning ever
sentence with and if they were not
discouraged that's why they are but it
turns out that there is no such rule
against ever starting a sentence with a
coordinating conjunction or at least
there shouldn't be and that's why the
first three sentences in this paragraph
do according to merriam-webster it's
slightly ridiculous to insist that these
words should not be used to begin a
sentence when a thousand years of
English writing has shown this to be a
fine way to start off so if the problem
with starting a sentence with so is not
that it's technically against the rules
well then what is the problem we could
find a clue if we went back to these
examples what do all of these sentences
have in common they don't continue a
thought and they don't conclude a
thought either they can see the thought
they begin it that seems to be the issue
because there's nothing particularly
annoying about saying something like I
didn't violate YouTube's Terms of
Service regarding advertiser suitability
so why was my video demonetised
in this case the word so continues or
concludes a thought it does not conceive
or introduce the thought if it did that
would be unnecessary and annoying and
maybe even a little condescending and
that is what we ought to avoid doing
beginning our thought or observation or
line of reasoning with the word so is a
lazy and lousy way of speaking so with
all of that having been said what's your
opinion does it irritate you when
somebody starts a sentence with so why
or why not and I yeah that's that's
pretty much it for this video
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