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I was taught that so means very.

"You are so busted," means, "You are very busted".

Now because of people saying things like, "I can only do so much," I thought they were saying, "I can only do very much".

What could that possibly mean? They can only do it "very much," but not "little much." But no! What they meant to say is, "I can do only as much as I can."

Why does the word so have a different meaning all of a sudden? Is it even correct? Is my variant correct, at least? Is this some hidden figure of speech?

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    Take another example: "She has a very strict teacher". You wouldn't be able to say "She has a so strict teacher". But you would be able to say "Her teacher is so strict". I think this substitution doesn't apply in all cases.
    – casraf
    Commented Dec 4, 2016 at 12:38
  • Have you tried consulting a dictionary, for example learnersdictionary.com/definition/so?
    – aparente001
    Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 2:04
  • @aparente001 Thank you! This helps a lot! Now I see how many uses there are. Wow. English is really hard.
    – Foxcat385
    Commented Dec 6, 2016 at 12:51
  • It gets easier, especially when you make a habit of looking up what words really mean, from time to time.
    – aparente001
    Commented Dec 6, 2016 at 14:18
  • Since "only" means the amount is being limited, and without specifics usually means the limit is small, what sense would it make for "so" to mean "very"?
    – Barmar
    Commented Dec 6, 2016 at 15:12

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Saying, "You are so busted," only equates to being "very busted," because of the emphasis we place on so.

"You are so busted!"

Is the kind of sentence that a child would say to their sibling when they're gleeful about the potential trouble that their sibling will be in. The emphasis and saying "so," instead of, "very" adds another meaning to the sentence.

"You are going to be in trouble and I am excited about it!"

This illustrates my point that so=very is incorrect, and by that reasoning, "I can only do so much," can be read as having an ulterior motive as well.

The kind of situation where someone would say, "I can only do so much," is usually in an apologetic context

"The air conditioner is broken, but look, I can only do so much."

or as a dismissal, where the speaker is not actually that interested in the problem or issue.

"The air conditioner is broken, but look, I am very busy right now."

I can only do so much doesn't have a literal secondary meaning, but it's implications deliver another message then immediately appears.

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  • So basically, there's no way to know what exactly someone meant to say? Wow, English is seriously ambiguous.
    – Foxcat385
    Commented Dec 16, 2016 at 21:41
  • Ambiguous is a word for it, 'sort of a trainwreck,' is another... I'm sorry if this wasn't helpful to you
    – newt
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 5:03
  • It was, but I've realized that the meaning changes dynamically depending on the situation and non-verbal communication rather than on morphology such as in Esperanto.
    – Foxcat385
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 18:43

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