So …

[GloiredeDijon]

Starting conversations with “So” is driving me mad.

Whilst it can be correctly used to begin a sentence in the appropriate circumstances it seems to be everywhere now.

Does it bother anyone else?

It annoys me and annoyed me even more when I caught myself doing it 🫣

Yes, it's very annoying.

So, I see your "So ..." and raise you "Look ...". Listen is also annoying but not used as often.

Why do they do it? To make the questioner feel smaller than them, The Great Answerer?

So what exactly is your point here?

In speech, it's used as a filler word to indicate that the speaker is about to say something.
It does get annoying - anything that gets used too often does.

Me too!

I don’t really understand why people are getting so annoyed about it. It’s just being used as a filler word rather than people trying to use it properly and getting it wrong.
However I get irrationally annoyed about other stuff so I can empathise.

What I would really like to understand is WHY some words are so annoying when used in a particular way. It’s not physically uncomfortable and yet it hits as if it was.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel , for a while on here it seemed like every OP started with So.

Literally irritates me. I don't like words that don't add something to the sentence.
In "Now all you do is simply add the ...", the simply annoys me.

What I would really like to understand is WHY some words are so annoying when used in a particular way.
I think it's that once it's become noticeable it becomes a raw nerve.

I don't like words that don't add something to the sentence.
In "Now all you do is simply add the ...", the simply annoys me.

Once I noticed Nigella's overuse of adjectives it very quickly became unbearable. "Now run your newly gloved fingers through the chilly peas until they are greenly and lusciously covered in some random delicious gunk". I shudder to think, Nigella. Just no.

Mine was by Delia.

Don't let me start on throw something in the pan.

I have noticed that a lot of Australian rugby players start most sentences with "Look........". Maybe it's common parlance down under. For some reason it doesn't bother me.