so excellent that

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

EXCELLENT in grammar has no comparative or superlative form, so we cannot say *VERY EXCELLENT.

  1. According to this rule, neither can we say SO EXCELLENT (eg * it’s so excellent!); do you agree?

  2. I’ve got a sentence:

-Your performance was so excellent that I’ve set you as my role model.

I think this sentence is grammatical and acceptable, because EXCELLENT is not modified by SO, and SO is used with THAT to introduce a that-clause, which is the result of the previous statement. Do you agree?

2

  1. In careful English, yes. In practice, someone might say “so excellent” in casual speech.

  2. Right, in “so excellent that I’ve set you as my role model”, the word “so” does not mean “very” but is part of the “so X that Y” structure (meaning that X is true to such an extent that Y happens / is possible).

3

Thank you~ It’s good to hear I was right~