"So" what's it all about?

You're not a grumpy old bat sassenach - we have had several threads on these weird sayings recently!
Like you hubby and I get irritated with the "So ...."
Can't think when that started or why!
Other irritations are the 'didn't he/she?'
for example "I went to town didn't I?"
or "She said ..... didn't she?"
And don't get me started on "You know"
What a tapestry of language life is these days!

"And, you know, we went into town and there was, you know, a guy standing on the corner and he was like, you know, just standing there. Like just staring! You know? "

Aaaarrgghh!

whatever happened to "well..." at the start of a conversation?

No doubt that usage irritated a whole bunch of people back in whichever year it became popular. Using 'well' or 'so' at the beginning of a sentence is just a filler, sometimes a means of indicating that you are about to answer the question but you perhaps haven't quite formulated your response yet. They both serve a similar function - why be irritated by one and not the other?

Language is a living thing, it's bound to change as time goes on, otherwise we'd still be thee-ing and thou-ing each other. One of my personal language bugbears is hubby, which I think is awful but I wouldn't want to stop Fourormore from using it! Live and let live, I reckon.

I hate " No...yeah" or just for a change " Yeah...no "at the start of a sentence. I want to scream at them " which is it - yes or no ? " . The millenials seem to say this a lot - it sound so wish you washy !

Absolutely SueDonim we have to roll with the times I suppose, each generation adds their take on our language.
Thanks Fourormore, I was beginning to think I was turning into my granny!

I don’t mind rolling with the times but the ‘So’ has been truely irritating me for a few years now it only seems to be used by the more posh or accedemic people The less acedemic are the ‘hun’ and ‘babe’ brigade which are equally annoying and the ‘basically’ or ‘ obviously’ that appear at least 20 times every sentence
How are you to day? ‘Well obviously I m ok because obviously if I was not ok you would obviously know because obviously I d be looking really grumpy and obviously I m not looking grumpy so obviously you can see I m ok’ grrrrr

Drives me mad. I want to yell "So ...so what?" at them. Only seems to have been around for the last 10 years or so. www.spectator.co.uk/2011/11/its-so-annoying/

I'm not mad on "hun" either.

I am a grumpy old (ish) woman today, feel entitled to be, as I have a tooth infection and painful swollen mouth. Off to take more pain killers.

I made an appointment with someone ( a young woman I hadn’t met) through a text message . Her reply:
“Seeya tomoz hun”
I suppose she was being friendly ...

Haven’t you anything more important to worry about?

I am not very bothered by “So...”. It isn’t very different from “Well....”.

I do agree with SueDonim about hubby. I didn’t know anyone really used it until I started reading posts online. I’ve never heard it in real life.

Before SueDomin wrote her post I was going to make a comment on hubby. Really dislike it but that’s just a personal dislike. “ So “ doesn’t bother me at all. There are all kinds of quirks of speech that come and go, and “So” seems pretty innocuous. “ At the end of the day “ was around for a long time but I hear it less now. Expressions come and go, don’t they?

I am not too bothered by these usages of certain words however hearing young ones speak rather as Chewbacca says does rather rub me up the wrong way...........but yes I guess its a sign of the times.
I am trying not to show the full extent of my years I guess!

Thought I was the only one who disliked "hubby" but as Bellanonna says, it is a personal dislike. Live and let live.

I can't stand the way young women talk with a croaky voice. It's called 'vocal fry' i hate it and turn off the radio or silence the TV when it happens.
Also can not stand what i call, 'little girl voices', on grown women.

Thought GN was somewhere we could discuss anything OldMeg large or small.
I really dislike the way the word 'like' is inserted into every sentence and often every other word grrrrr

Strange thing, language. A hundred years ago the word 'Hun' had a totally different meaning... I'm guessing the current usage is American in origin. Short for Honey? Yuk!

AS Dh is deaf/doesn't listen to me I tend to start whatever I am going to say with an introduction which could be 'so' or 'well then' it juts gets his attention much nicer than shouting 'Oi cloth ears at him'.

So, does it really annoy you then? ?
In Germany it seems to be said a lot and always has been I think, and it only means the same as well.
I don’t say hubby at all or kiddies but can’t say it bothers me if others do, innit?

Wow! Didn't I open a can of worms by referring to hubby!
Call him far worse than that at times believe me but can't refer to him as DH - as per GN abbreviations!
Could mean Dear, Darling, Dreadful???
D could stand for any or worse!
To be honest I find the GN abbreviations tricky - I read a post the other day that referred to GF. I wondered what Grandfather was up to until I twigged it was Girlfriend!
Please don't take me too seriously folks! I really feel that Sassanach was being light hearted when she started this!

He turned round and said....... People never seem to be facing each other before they start to talk!

It’s the constant umming and erring that drives me insane. Apparently clever people on the radio do it all the time. Grrr

Check out the opening line of the late Seamus Heaney's translation of BEOWULF - starts with 'So...'

What gets my goat is when people say blindingly simple things but finish with a rhetorical: 'Do you know what I mean?' as if you are an idiot.

I am always tempted to say a donkey would understand that.