So to speak, as it were
Hi
Sorry, I have asked this before but...
Would you say that these sentence are natural English--I mean, the use of as it were and/or so to speak?
1- I was so terrified that ,as it were, my legs were like jelly.
2- I was so terrified that my legs were like jelly, as it were.
3- Don’t you feel overwhelmed by so many words and ways of putting them together, so to speak?
4- Don’t you feel, so to speak, overwhelmed by so many words and ways of putting them together?
Thanks,
Tom
Top answer
Mr. Tom Would you say that these sentence are natural English--I mean, the use of as it were and/or so to speak? Not at all.
- Mr.
- Tom Would you say that these sentence are natural English--I mean, the use of as it were and/or so to speak?
- Not at all.
- "So to speak" is used to rather weakly excuse a turn of phrase, often jocularly, and it always comes immediately after the phrase as a parenthetical.
- "As it were" is similar.
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Mr. TomWould you say that these sentence are natural English--I mean, the use of as it were and/or so to speak?
Not at all. "So to speak" is used to rather weakly excuse a turn of phrase, often jocularly, and it always comes immediately after the phrase as a parenthetical. "As it were" is similar. It is mock-formal in everyday English.
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