In this mini episode, you will learn an important “so that” construction.
Episode 435 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you an important “so that” construction. Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi, everybody! This is Shuma, from Japan. And you are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 435 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you a very important and common construction. We can think of this as a “so that” construction. So that. Because it uses the words so and that.
Let me give you a couple of sentences that use this construction:
“That movie was so boring that I fell asleep.” That movie was so boring that I fell asleep.
Here’s another one:
“He is so rich that he has three cars.” He is so rich that he has three cars.
And let me give you one more:
“They go to the restaurant so often that the waiters already know what they’re going to order.” They go to the restaurant so often that the waiters already know what they are going to order.
In all three of these sentences, we see this phrase: so, and then an adjective or an adverb, that. “So boring that,” “so rich that,” “so often that.” This is what we see in this construction: so, and then an adjective or an adverb, and that.
What does it mean? What does it mean to say “so boring that” or “so rich that” or “so often that”? It can be a little bit difficult to explain this. Let me try to explain how we use this construction and what it means.
Let’s look at that first sentence: “The movie was so boring that I fell asleep.” What does this mean? It means because the movie was very boring, the result is I fell asleep. Because the movie was very boring, I fell asleep as a result. Or the movie was boring enough to cause me to fall asleep. The movie was boring enough that it had this result: I fell asleep. “The movie was so boring that I fell asleep.”
The same explanation can work with those other sentences. “He is so rich that he owns three cars.” That means he is rich enough that he can own three cars. Or because he is very, very rich, he owns three cars.
You can make sentences like this with adjectives and adverbs when you want to say that somebody or something is so much a certain way that it has this result. That’s what this “so that” construction is for. It’s talking about the result of being very, very, something. Very, very tired. Very, very boring. Doing something very, very often. It works with adjectives and adverbs.
Let me give you one more example and see if you can understand what this means before I explain it:
“The exam was so difficult that even the best students got a poor grade.” The exam was so difficult that even the best students got a poor grade.
What does this mean? What do you think this “so that” construction is telling us? This sentence means the exam was very, very difficult, and as a result, even the best students got a poor grade. Or this exam was difficult enough to have this result: Even the best students got a poor grade. How difficult was the exam? It was so difficult that this was the result.
One last thing I want to say about this construction: You will often hear people leave out that when they use this construction. This has a very casual and informal feeling, and it sounds very conversational. You will hear people say things like, “The movie was so boring I fell asleep.” The movie was so boring I fell asleep. Instead of saying, “The movie was so boring that I fell asleep.”
And that is this “so that” construction, a very important piece of grammar that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 435 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Shuma recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!