To be irritated by sentences that start with...

[user1499127763]

Just a general observation- it seems to have become a trend to respond to a question by starting with the word 'SO.....,' Has this always been a thing, or have I just woken up to it?

I'm Irish and use so all the time. But it is usually at the end of the sentence, for example, "I'll go to the shop so". This is probably even more nonsensical.

My English friends do laugh at me, but I laugh at the way they say "I was sat on the chair". So it's all swings and roundabouts.

YANBU.

Also, particularly on MN, anyone who ends their post with "Thoughts?"
makes me feel like I'm being surveyed.

Starting a sentence with "So..." immediately makes me think that whatever comes next is gossip.

Will i am started it all off on the Voice.

Basically, so , look, listen.. all words that politicians like to start with and we know they all lie most of the time/

Doesn't bother me at all but "Look" at the beginning of a response makes me itch.

This! Also on my list of sentence-starters that bothers me are "Listen now, ..." and "Just so you know...".

Ooh, 'look' always sounds quite aggressive, I think. I know someone who does that. I also know someone who begins sentences with 'no', despite not being asked a question, sometimes it's 'no, yes' but it's very odd. 'What a lovely day' 'no, yes, isn't it sunny'.

I love the Irish use of so 'I'll pick up some milk on my way home, so' as I'm from that background, so that is exempt from my twitching.

Yanbu.

I hate sentences that start "when" e.g. On social media I see people posting stuff like "when your toddler decides they want to wear wellies to bed" next to a photi

thats why people in politics say ' look ' a lot i think.
they want us to believe they are the only ones in the right.
we know its not true.

I thought I was probably guilty of loads of these but I looked through my Facebook and was pleased to see that all my sentences were actually quite blunt.

When I was about 12, despite having excellent written grammar I used to start every spoken explanation with 'What it is, is...'. Cringe.

I hate sentences beginning with 'so' and 'look' or 'now look'. I think using so at the start of a sentence is just adding an unecessary word and the other two are just rude/patronising - and are mainly used by MPs

I think "so" is a perfectly cromulent way to start a sentence

No, it isn't. It implies that something has happened previously that this is the consequence of. If in fact it is the beginning of the story, it is completely superfluous and can be confusing.

Cromulent words are a Simpsons joke, Ceto.

I start often sentences with "so", especially when I'm in lecturer/trainer mode. This is largely because the ingrained style of presentation is to unravel a story over the time you're speaking, with lots of threads/thoughts leading to others. It's quite natural to use "so" to mean "leading from the previous...".

JeReviens - it was happening a lot on the Today programme. I have turned the radio off, several times because of it.

I also get annoyed when people on here finish a sentence saying no ?
I translate that as meaning you must agree with me

Maid, I don't think that is what annoys people, as that makes sense.

The people I know who do this enough for it to be something you'd notice would walk into the room and say 'so, I've looked at the notes you made on x...'

I've started to do this!! It annoys me!

I've done this sometimes. When I post a thread, I think of the thread title as the opening rather than the first sentence.

Thread title gives gist of story/question and So, is like taking a dramatic pause before getting into the details.

E.g.:

Title: Help my cat has brought a live mouse into the house!

So, Dcat has brought a live mouse into the house and now it's run off and I can't find it.....

It makes a lot of sense if you are being interviewed on the radio to start your sentence with a word that can start a lot of sentences, when you haven't quite decided what you're going to say yet.

I don't mind it but I have a friend who really overuses it. She used to be normal but has changed into a person who starts every story with "so..." and constantly seems to "do brunch", which annoys me more than the "so...".