Korean Job Discussion Forums

[schwa]

I got this email from a student today.

"He received such terrible reviews that he never performed on Broadway."
"He received so terrible reviews that he never performed on Broadway."
Both of the sentences above are right ?
Which one sounds more natural?

I'll see her tomorrow & I'd like to offer a clear explanation of whats wrong with the second option. "So terrible reviews" doesnt work but "His reviews were so terrible" does. "So" is modifying the same adjective. Why or when exactly does "such" come into play?

[hypnotist]

[Standard I-am-a-grammar-amateur disclaimer]

One uses 'such' when one is adding emphasis to a noun or noun phrase. So adds emphasis to an adverb or adjective.

He's such a great guy! He's so friendly! He can run so fast!

[schwa]

Ah I think thats it. The plural "reviews" in the example blurs the distinction.

In single form, its clearer:
"such a terrible review"
"so terrible a review"

The 2nd sentence would therefore have to be recast as "He received reviews so terrible that .." to be correct.

Thanks!

[agraham]

This is one I've been unable to explain in the past. Thanks for bringing it up.

[globalnomad]

Don't Use "So" as a Vague Intensifier




by Tina Blue
March 23, 2005




Modifiers like much, so, too, and very are called intensifiers. Traditionally classed as adverbs, intensifiers are used to modify adjectives and adverbs by adding force or emphasis, but they do not usually modify verbs.

In the following examples, the intensifiers are printed in bold type:


I am very sorry.
The dinner was quite elaborate.
You finished your homework rather quickly.
Why do you visit so seldom?


In these examples, very modifies the adjective sorry, quite modifies the adjective elaborate, rather modifies the adverb quickly, and so modifies the adverb seldom.


The following words are commonly used as intensifiers:


fairly
quite
rather
so
too
very



~ So . . . That ~


The word so combined with a clause beginning with that can also be used in order to indicate a cause-effect relationship:


~The binding was so old that it practically disintegrated when we opened the book.
~His condition so far gone that they decided to withdraw all life support.
~She spoke so quietly that we could not hear her at all from the second row.


In the first two examples, so modifies the adjective old and the adjective phrase far gone. In the last example, so modifies the adverb quietly.


NOTE: In each of these examples, the word so is combined with a clause beginning with that, in order to indicate a cause-effect relationship. In
informal English (though not in formal written English), the word that in the expression so . . . that is sometimes omitted:


The baby was so tired, he fell asleep before we could get him home.


Notice, however, that even in such a sentence, there is a "that clause," and that is clearly implied, even when it is not overtly expressed. It would be wrong to say,


The baby was so tired.


The word so in this example is improperly used as a vague intensifier of the sort warned against by William Strunk and E. B.White, in the widely used and highly respected Strunk and White's Elements of Style:


*From Strunk's Elements of Grammar
Chapter V: Words and Expressions Commonly Misused


So. Avoid, in writing, the use of "so" as an intensifier: "so good"; "so warm"; "so delightful."




Learn this general rule:
In writing do not use"so" as a vague intensifier. It must be followed by a specific"that" clause:


WRONG: The story was so depressing.
RIGHT: The story was so depressing that I didn't even want to finish reading it.


____________________
*Because of copyright issues, recent editions of Strunk and White are not available online, though they are readily available at most bookstores and libraries. This excerpt from an early edition of Strunk can be accessed on line at
www.greatestbooks.org/visitorlibrary/grammer/strunk/chapter5.htm

[Eunoia]

Schwa - in your two examples, the first one is more correct; however, they both feel somewhat awkward. It might be better to simply reword them as:

The reviews he received were so terrible that he never performed on Broadway.

or maybe

He never again performed on Broadway, so terrible were the reviews he received...

J.M.H.O.

[jajdude]

[quote="schwa"]
"He received such terrible reviews that he never performed on Broadway."
"He received so terrible reviews that he never performed on Broadway."
Both of the sentences above are right ?
Which one sounds more natural?[/i]
quote]

"such" is much better in this case.