You can use so and such to make a description stronger or refer to a degree you have in mind. Choose the form from the words that follow it: so quiet, but such a quiet room.
Use so before an adjective, a word that describes something, or an adverb, which can describe how something happens. So makes the description strong or points to a degree that matters in the situation.
You do not need to add a result after every so phrase. A sentence such as I'm so pleased can stand by itself. So can express a strong feeling, refer back to something, or ask about a degree.
In the second example, the that part says what you are relieved about. It is not a result caused by your relief. Check the meaning of the whole sentence, not just the words so and that.
So does not mean too. So expensive is a strong description. Too expensive says that the price is beyond a suitable limit. Something can be so useful without being too useful.
A noun phrase is a noun with any words that belong with it, such as a long meeting or helpful advice. Use such before this phrase. The noun may have an adjective, but it does not need one.
A count noun names something you can count, such as a chair. With one count noun, put a or an after such. Choose a or an from the next sound, just as you do elsewhere.
With a plural count noun or an uncountable noun, which names an amount or substance, do not add a or an in this pattern.
Without an adjective, the noun itself can carry the strong meaning. A disaster is already a negative description. Such a disaster makes that description stronger. Such fun works in the same way with an uncountable noun.
Do not choose so or such from the adjective alone. Check whether the description includes a noun after it.
| Adjective or adverb phrase | Noun phrase |
|---|---|
| The path was so narrow. | It was such a narrow path. |
| The instructions were so clear. | They were such clear instructions. |
| The equipment is so useful. | It is such useful equipment. |
In the left column, so changes an adjective. In the right column, such comes before the noun phrase. The article belongs with a singular count noun, not with every noun.
You can have another adverb inside a so phrase. In so surprisingly easy, surprisingly changes easy, and so applies to the whole description.
The main noun pattern is such a narrow path, not a such narrow path or so a narrow path. There is a separate formal so narrow a path pattern, explained below. Do not confuse that accepted pattern with the wrong article orders.
When you emphasise an amount or number with much, many, little or few, the main pattern uses so. Use much and little for an uncountable amount, and many and few for a plural number.
| Phrase | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| so much + uncountable noun | a large amount | so much dust |
| so many + plural count noun | a large number | so many parcels |
| so little + uncountable noun | a small amount | so little patience |
| so few + plural count noun | a small number | so few customers |
An adjective can still follow the quantity word: so many empty boxes, so much unused space. So applies to the number or amount; the adjective describes the things.
Use such a lot of as another noun phrase pattern. The a belongs to a lot, including before a plural or uncountable noun. Do not replace much with lot and keep the rest unchanged.
These phrases can also stand without a noun when the context makes the amount or number clear.
That does not give the whole four-word set a single level.
Little has two different jobs. In so little time, it is about an amount: not much time. In such little shoes, little is an adjective meaning small. The shoes themselves are small, not few in number.
Use so little and so few as your main quantity patterns. Do not turn that guidance into a ban on every such little phrase. BBC's grammar answer distinguishes the small-size adjective and also calls quantity phrases such little rest and such few leaves unusual, rather than impossible.
Check the context to decide whether little means small size or a small amount. The word little alone does not settle that decision.
A comparative compares things, with a form such as lighter, better or more carefully. Use so much before this comparative form, rather than putting bare so directly before it.
Compare so light, a strong description, with so much lighter, a strong difference. In so much lighter, much is not followed by an uncountable noun. It strengthens the comparison.
Use so much after a verb to emphasise an activity or feeling. If the verb has an object, keep that object with the verb.
Do not make a blanket rule that bare so can never follow a verb. Oxford and Cambridge record forms such as worry so. So much is the main pattern shown here; the shorter form also exists.
A clause is a group of words with a verb. Add that and a clause to say what happened because of the degree or amount you have described.
The stiff tap or slow printing is the cause; what follows that is the result. The two tap sentences describe the same problem, but they build the description differently.
A quantity phrase can have a result too: so much noise that I couldn't hear, or so few seats that some people had to stand. The form before that still follows the quantity rules.
You can leave out that, especially in informal English. The result clause still needs its own ordinary sentence structure.
Very can strengthen an adjective, but it does not replace so in this linked result pattern. The lid was very tight is complete. To add the result directly with that, use so tight that I couldn't open it, not very tight that I couldn't open it.
Keep result and purpose separate. So heavy that I couldn't lift it describes a result. A so that clause can instead say what someone wants to achieve. See Reason, purpose and result: because, as, since, so that and in order to for that difference, including result uses of so that itself. The word that alone does not tell you which meaning you have.
A more formal alternative to such a difficult choice is so difficult a choice. The adjective comes before the article in this pattern. It is not so a difficult choice.
This alternative is useful to recognise. Use such a detailed report as your main everyday noun phrase. It does not create a so detailed reports pattern for a plural noun.
A second formal pattern is so plus an adjective plus as to and a base verb. It connects a degree with an action or consequence.
The first example is a formal request. Do not confuse this pattern with so as to plus a verb on its own, which can express purpose. See Purpose: to, in order to and for for purpose infinitives.
Such can mean of that kind, rather than a very high degree. Cambridge labels this use more formal. The kind may already have been mentioned or may be explained next.
Here such comes after first. The first such request means the first request of that kind. It does not mean an extremely first request.
In a formal pattern, such can also stand after be before a that clause, without a following noun. The clause explains the kind or degree.
Such as can introduce an example: outdoor jobs such as gardening. As such can mean in that role, or in the exact sense of a word. These are different uses, not extra ways to put such before a bare adjective.
So has other jobs too: I think so refers back to an idea, so do I adds agreement, and sentence-linking so introduces a result or decision. See Short answers, so do I, neither do I, and I think so and Reason, purpose and result: because, as, since, so that and in order to rather than applying degree rules to all these uses.
You may also hear strongly stressed so before a noun phrase, a verb phrase or not in expressive speech. BBC describes this spoken use; Cambridge Dictionary labels some noun and not examples not standard. It is not the main neutral pattern for writing. Its existence is a reason to avoid a blanket claim that so never occurs before any noun or verb.
✗It was a such useful suggestion.
✓It was such a useful suggestion.
In the main noun phrase pattern, put such before a or an.
✗The answer was such clear.
✓The answer was so clear.
Clear is an adjective with no following noun here.
✗There were such many empty seats.
✓There were so many empty seats.
Use so before many in this quantity pattern.
See enough and too for excess and sufficiency, Quite and rather, fairly and pretty and Gradable and non-gradable adjectives: choosing degree words for other degree words, Modifying comparatives for stronger comparisons, and Exclamations: what a... and how... for what and how in exclamations.
Eight questions. Choose one answer for each.