so/therefore

[Untaught88]

Hi,

The shop is closed so I can't buy any bread.
The shop is closed therefore I can't buy any bread.

Any difference between ''so'' and ''therefore''?

 

[Barb_D]

Hi,

The shop is closed, so I can't buy any bread.
The shop is closed; therefore, I can't buy any bread.

Any difference between ''so'' and ''therefore''?

"Therefore" cannot be used as coordinating conjunction.

 

[Untaught88]

I read on a website that ''so' is informal while ''therefore'' is formal.

The shop is closed; therefore, I can't buy any bread.

Is the comma optional after ''therefore''?
If I don't want use the semicolon then I have to use ''and'' before ''therefore'' as in:

The shop is closed and therefore I can't buy any bread.

 

[Barb_D]

I read on a website that ''so' is informal while ''therefore'' is formal. I don't find them different in "register" but using "therefore" tends to be used with more significant matters. Like "Your sister has a lot of homework, so you'll have to do the dinner dishes on your own tonight" would sound a little silly with the "therefore" construction. Doing the dishes is not that important a matter. Other people may have other feelings about this.

The shop is closed; therefore, I can't buy any bread.
Is the comma optional after ''therefore''? I don't consider it optional, but I use more commas than is currently fashionable.

If I don't want use the semicolon then I have to use ''and'' before ''therefore'' as in:

The shop is closed and therefore I can't buy any bread. I find this unnatural but not ungrammatical. You could use a period and make two sentences.

Other people may feel differently than I do.

 

[Untaught88]

Can I also say as in:

The shop is closed. Therefore, I can't buy any bread.

 

[Rover_KE]

You can say that if you wish. In real life, native speakers wouldn't.

 

[Barb_D]

Can I also say as in:

The shop is closed. Therefore, I can't buy any bread.

When I wrote "You could use a period and make two sentences," that is what I meant.
Like doing the dishes, it seems too trivial a matter to use "therefore."

Yeah, I couldn't get bread - when I got to the shop, it had already closed. I'll get some tomorrow.

 

[emsr2d2]

The arrangement is rather formal. I would just say "I couldn't get any bread because the shop was shut".

 

[jutfrank]

Of course there are differences between the two words (as Barb-D has clearly pointed out) but they share the same basic meaning in both sentences of 'the result is that'.

Normally, therefore is used to show that a result has been derived logically, so it would be a little out of place in this case. For this reason, I'd say that it is more common in academic English, especially science, mathematics and philosophy (but not really more 'formal'). Consider:

I think; therefore I am.

All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

So if "The shop is closed. Therefore, I can't buy any bread." sounds awkward, it's because, like me, you don't recognise a logical connection between the two clauses -- the result is merely circumstantial.

 

[Barb_D]

Of COURSE there is a logical connection.
I wanted to buy bread at that shop. When I got there, the shop was closed. Therefore, I could not buy bread.

Circumstantial would be that the store next door was closed too, or you noticed that the flowers in the shop's window box were starting to bloom.

I suggest it's a matter of "gravitas" that makes "therefore" an unlikely choice for a native speaker. It's not at all of matter of a missing logical connection.

 

[jutfrank]

Gravitas? Really?

Yes, I'll politely concede that it is reasonable to see a logical connection -- if you mean the inability to buy bread is a result of the shop being closed. I don't deny that, of course.

I meant to suggest that using therefore is a way for the speaker to indicate that she wants to emphasise that she's using a sound logical argument. Descartes' cogito doesn't sound as authoritative/inarguable (is that what you mean by gravitas?) translated as I think, so I am.

 

[Untaught88]

@Barb_D

"The shop is closed, and therefore I can't buy any bread" sounds unnatural to you. Do you mean every sentence which contains "...,and therefor..." is unnatural to you or only this particular sentence?

 

[Barb_D]

I would have to see a number of sentences where this is the proposed wording to say whether they felt natural to me.