Things that really annoy you ...

[mr_hippo]

Carwash, is English your native language? An ellipsis is used to denote missing words; you say 'it doesn't follow on from anything because there's nothing to follow on from.' therefore your use of an ellipsis in '...so, I accidentally ate my own legs.' is wrong by your own 'admission'.
Can we start sentences with 'so'? So many people have asked me that question and I will be pleased to answer that tomorrow.

It is now 11 o'clock here and so to bed!

 

[bof]

Can we start sentences with 'so'? So many people have asked me that question and I will be pleased to answer that tomorrow.

Strewth, thank heavens I'm out most of the day.

 

[Carwash]

Carwash, is English your native language? An ellipsis is used to denote missing words; you say 'it doesn't follow on from anything because there's nothing to follow on from.' therefore your use of an ellipsis in '...so, I accidentally ate my own legs.' is wrong by your own 'admission'.
Can we start sentences with 'so'? So many people have asked me that question and I will be pleased to answer that tomorrow.

It is now 11 o'clock here and so to bed!

Of course you can start a sentence with 'so'. I'm not arguing that at all. I'm talking about starting a conversation - from cold - with 'so' specifically as if to refer to something that has been said previously.

My point is that it sounds somehow wrong to start a conversation like this. In the context of the conversation, nothing has been said previously, so there's nothing to refer back to.

I'm not arguing that there's anything grammatically wrong with that, merely that it sounds odd (and annoying), as though you've come in halfway through the conversation or there's some lacuna. Hence my ellipsis remark.

 

[laurence]

i get annoyed that the plural of roof isn't rooves, because roofs is such a clumsy word.

 

[Andy in Sig]

Of course you can start a sentence with 'so'. I'm not arguing that at all. I'm talking about starting a conversation - from cold - with 'so' specifically as if to refer to something that has been said previously.

My point is that it sounds somehow wrong to start a conversation like this. In the context of the conversation, nothing has been said previously, so there's nothing to refer back to.

I'm not arguing that there's anything grammatically wrong with that, merely that it sounds odd (and annoying), as though you've come in halfway through the conversation or there's some lacuna. Hence my ellipsis remark.

Unless of course you're Elwood in the Blues Brothers: "So, would you like to, er, meet ... after the show?"

 

[Carwash]

Unless of course you're Elwood in the Blues Brothers: "So, would you like to, er, meet ... after the show?"

(Although again, that's not what I'm talking about, as it's not referring to anything previously said. Ah, forget it - I'm evidently apparently clearly having a hard time explaining what I mean, and it doesn't annoy me all that much!)

 

[Andy in Sig]

I know what you mean and agree with you. It's just that Elwood is ... well ... Elwood.

 

[Twenty Inch]

This thread is really annoying me.

 

[Pete]

...and me, too. I can't make sense of all this argufying. I once stumbled across an internet forum in which someone had just been Moderated (and not merely Moderated, had their Account Suspended ) for the heinous crime of persistent spelling and grammatical errors. Should such a regime be imposed here?

 

[Elmer Fudd]

Newsreaders on Central News who say Birmigham. It's Birmingham !
It's got a bloody N in it

 

[Elmer Fudd]

people who say 'Basically' at the beginning of every sentence.

Basically, I disagree with that, you know ?

 

[andy_wrx]

Newsreaders on Central News who say Birmigham. It's Birmingham !
It's got a bloody N in it

Yes, but if they have a Brummie accent and want to pronounce the name of their city like that, I say they have the right to !

Unlike BBC-English received pronunciation newsreaders in the BBC newroom Down South who mispronounce places like Newcarsle, Doncuster, Glawsgoe, Man-Chester, etc in a way that their residents would never do

 

[Elmer Fudd]

Yes, but if they have a Brummie accent and want to pronounce the name of their city like that, I say they have the right to !

Sorry Andy, I'm an ex Brummie and it is Birmingham, perhaps I lived in the posh part ! (Northfield, Rednall, Rubery, who am I kidding !! )

 

[Dayvo]

i get annoyed that the plural of roof isn't rooves, because roofs is such a clumsy word.

I've got nothing against homosexuality, but try to say 'poov(e)s'!
It just doesn't work!

 

[dangerousjules]

i want to slap people that pepper their sentences with 'like'...WHAT THE F**KS IT LIKE!