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Sentence A: She's really sensitive when it comes to talking about her husband.

Sentence B: She's so sensitive when it comes to talking about her husband.

My question is: from these two sentences, which one that is more widely-used especially in native English speaker environment.

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    Sorry, but proofreading questions are not on-topic for ELL. If you write what specifically you're having trouble with (rather than just "Please correct these sentences"), then I'll reopen the question.
    – Matt
    Dec 3, 2013 at 23:44

3 Answers 3

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I think 'so in this context adds some astonishment with the fact that she's emotional; whereas really simply talks about the fact that she's emotional.

This may make it clear:

Yes, I met her for the first time. She's really tall (I had some idea about her height and then it turned out to be real!).

Yes, I met her for the first time. She's so tall (that I had to look up to talk to her!). (Here, so serves as "To a very great extent or degree" and suggests that the speaker is actually astonished and didn't think that she could be that tall).

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    But "so [adjective]" and "so [adjective] that [clause]" are arguably a different "so". The second "so" means "[adjective] to the extent that [clause]" and is unemotional, whereas the first one is an emotional intensifier.
    – Kaz
    Dec 4, 2013 at 1:21
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Both of your examples are typical usage for American English, and they have essentially the same meaning.

The second one might be slightly more emphatic than the first, if only because if so isn't strongly emphasized then the listener might think the sentence is incomplete, because they would be expecting a "so ... that ..." construction.

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  • If the emphatic "so" is intended, but is not voiced properly (making it sound like the to-the-extent-that "so" which requires a complement), then the speaker is essentially making a grammar error.
    – Kaz
    Dec 4, 2013 at 1:24
  • @Kaz, my point is that to avoid that error, you must strongly emphasize "so". Which tends to make the "so" sentence sound more emphatic than the "really" sentence.
    – The Photon
    Dec 4, 2013 at 1:37
  • Notice that first para in J.R.'s answer essentially makes the erroneous reading of the "so", probably because print doesn't give the ability to indicate the required emphasis.
    – The Photon
    Dec 4, 2013 at 2:01
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Sentence B seems a little incomplete. When someone is "so something," that often precedes further clarification:

She is so sensitive when it comes to talking about her husband that I always avoid the subject.

On the other hand:

She is really sensitive when it comes to talking about her husband so I always avoid the subject.

The so in the second sentences is a conjunction meaning therefore.

The Collins dictionary goes into this nuance of the word so:

so (adv.) (followed by an adjective or adverb and a correlative clause often introduced by that) to such an extent ⇒ the river is so dirty that it smells

When so is used to simply mean very, that may work better with an exclamation point at the end:

She is so sensitive when it comes to talking about her husband!

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