Hi. Welcome again to www.engvid.com. My name's Adam. Today's lesson is a grammar lesson,
and it's about words or expressions that are very often confused or mixed up. We're going
to look at "so", "so that", "so something that", usually "so adjective", or: "so adverb
that". I can actually put that in here. Adjective, adverb, that.
So, before we look at what usually gets mixed up, and how the things get mixed up, and the
confusions, let's do a quick review of what all of these expressions or words mean, or
how they are used. We're going to start with "so". Now, "so" has quite a few functions,
quite a few uses in grammar. One is to agree. Okay? So you say: "I love English." That's
why you come to engVid. Right? "So do I. I love English, that's why I come to engVid
as well." So I agree with you. "So do I."
To refer to. -"I think that something is beautiful. I think that that woman is beautiful." -"Well,
if you think so, you should go talk to her." "So" means referring to what I just said.
"If you think so. If you think she is beautiful, go speak to her." Right? So, "so" is sort
of like a pronoun, but not exactly. It's referring to something. It stands in the place of something
that was already mentioned and understood.
As a quantifier. As a quantifier, basically, "so" means "very". "I am so hungry." Means
I am very hungry. Okay? All we do is we quantify it. We give a quantity to the adjective. We
make it stronger, more intense, "very".
"So much", "so many" just means a lot. "So few" means a few, very little. Right? So,
this is basically used like an adverb. We can use it "so much" or "so many noun". We
can say: "So much", "so many adjective and noun". So, we use this as an adverb. And again,
it's like a quantifier; I'm just giving you more quantity or less quantity, or more degree
Now, this is the one we want to focus on, "so" as a conjunction, because this is what
gets confused with these two. Okay? So, "so" as a conjunction, basically we use it like...
Like "because", except "because" is an adverb clause conjunction. We use an adverb clause.
"So" is just an independent clause joining two... Oh, sorry, it's a coordinating clause
joining two independent clauses. Okay? So: "I was late, so I missed the meeting." It
basically shows you a result of something that came before. You could say: "Because...
Because I missed..." Sorry. "Because I was late, I missed the meeting.", "I was late,
so I missed the meeting." So this is a coordinating conjunction joining two independent clauses,
and talks... Shows you result. So far, so good.
That's another expression. "So far" means until now.
"So that", "so that" is an adverb clause marker or an adverb clause conjunction. It shows
purpose. Okay? Remember: an adverb clause joins two actions, in the independent clause,
and in the adverb clause, and it's the relationship between the clauses is purpose. So, whatever
comes after "so that" shows the purpose of what you did in the previous clause. Here's
an example. "I worked overtime this week"-why?-"so that I could take time off next week." Okay?
So, this is the purpose of this. Okay? Remember: adverb clause, there's always going to be
a relationship between the adverb clause and the independent clause.
Okay? That relationship is one of purpose.
Lastly, we have "so adjective", "so adverb that". Now, this is a bit of a combination
of the two. You have a quantifier, so you're making this very something, and you want to
give a little bit extra information. What does this mean? Right? You want to complete
the meaning of this. Okay? Let's look at this example. I'm going to go right through that
one. "I am so tired that I might pass out." Pass out, faint. Okay? Now, I could say:
"I am so tired." This is a complete sentence; you don't need anymore. I have the quantifier,
I have the adjective, I've completed my meaning.
But I want you to understand how tired I am. "Very tired" is not enough. I want you to
understand more. I want to complete this meaning, so I add another clause. We call this a "that
clause", a complement clause. It completes the meaning. "I am so tired that I might pass
out." Okay? That's how tired I am.
Now, you notice I put "that" in brackets. In these types of sentences, "that" you can
take out. "I am so tired I might pass out." It's understood. The point is: don't confuse
this "so" with this "so", conjunction. This is not a conjunction. It is also not a quantifier.
It is a quantifier, but it's not part of that, it's not part of this guy. Okay?
Now... Now we understand all these things. The question is: how do these get confused
and how can you avoid confusing these? Let's look at some examples.
Okay, so let's look at some examples of some sentences that might be a little bit confusing
when we're using these expressions. But before we look at these sentences, for all you sharp
eyed viewers out there, you may have noticed that I made a mistake with the word "quantifier",
I wrote "quantier". Okay? Let me just make sure everybody understands it's "quantifier",
add the "fi" to the one you saw before, and we're good to go.
Okay, now, let's look at some example sentences using each of these expressions. "Bill worked
hard, so he was promoted." Promoted means given a higher title or a better position
in the company. "Bill worked hard so that he would be promoted.", "Bill worked so hard
that he had to be promoted." Now, each of these sentence is grammatically correct, and
each one has its own meaning. The meanings are different. Okay? They're related, but
they're different. Let's look at each one separately.
"Bill worked hard." The result of this hard work was that he was promoted. Okay? What...?
Because he worked hard, he was promoted. Okay? Hard work, promotion is the result. Good.
"Bill worked hard so that he would be promoted." Now, Bill wants to be the president of the
company. How will he become the president? He will work hard. So, he worked hard because
he wanted to be promoted. He would be. Okay? This was the purpose for this. This was the
result of this. So, you notice, we have the same verb and adverb, same verb and adverb.
This was the result of this, this was why he did this.
"Bill worked so hard that he had to be promoted." Okay? What does it mean "had to"? It means
the company had to give him a promotion because he worked harder than everyone else. So, he
almost left them no choice. Okay? "Bill worked so hard". Everybody worked hard, but Bill
worked so hard... They need to complete the meaning of "so hard", that he had to be given
a promotion. Okay? He had to be promoted to complete this meaning, "so hard".
So now you see the differences between them. But wait, let's look at another example. I
want to show you something else.
"Jill is smart, so all the boys like her." Okay? Boys like smart girls. Jill is smart.
The result of her being smart, they like her. Because she's smart, they like her. This is
her situation. Notice I have a "be" verb here.
"Jill studies regularly so that she can beat the boys." Jill is very determined, she's
very ambitious, she wants to be better than the boys. So, she studies regularly. Why?
So that she can beat the boys, get a better position or do better on tests.
One thing you must realize right away or notice right away is that, here, I'm using an active
verb. I don't... I can't use a "be" verb. Why? Because I'm using an adverb clause that
has a relationship with an active verb, with an action. There's a relationship, so I have
Here, I'm back to the "be" verb. "Jill is so smart", Jill is very, very smart. Okay.
So? "That all the boys are afraid of her." She's so smart that she scares the boys, or
that the boys are afraid of her. This completes the meaning of this. If you say: "She's so
smart." Well, lots of girls are very smart. Right? "But she's so smart that all the boys
are afraid." Other girls are very smart, but the boys are not afraid of them. She's so
Now, one thing you can also notice here: "Bill worked hard so he would be promoted." I can
take out that because I have a subject. This is understood. "Bill worked so hard he had
to be promoted.", "Jill studies regularly so she can beat the boys.", "Jill is so smart
all the boys are afraid of her." Okay? In all these cases, you can take out "that",
it's understood. There are many examples of clauses that you can take out the conjunction
"that" or the pronoun "that" because you have your subject, you have your subject, you have
your subject. So that "that" can come out. The only thing is don't confuse this "so"
with this "so", or this "so", or this "so". Each one has its own purpose.
But now, why is this important to understand? In writing, you have to be correct in the
way you use the word "so", or "so that", or "so adjective/adverb that". Here, by the way,
"so smart", adjective; "so hard", "worked so hard", adverb. Both okay. Adjective, adverb
with "so". In writing, it makes a big difference in the meaning of the sentence. If I'm reading
a sentence and I see: "so smart", I'm expecting a clause to follow. If one doesn't and a period
doesn't, then I get confused. Okay? In speaking, you can get away with it. In writing, you can't.
Now, if you have any questions about this, go to www.engvid.com and ask me, and I will
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