Expressing Result: Such…That / So…That

It was such a difficult exam that half the class failed.

Notice

  • It was such a difficult exam that half the class failed.
  • She was so tired that she fell asleep on the sofa.
  • He speaks so quickly that I can barely understand him.
  • It was such bad weather that the match was cancelled.

Rule

So + adjective/adverb + that and such + (a/an) + adjective + noun + that both introduce a result clause. Use so directly before an adjective or adverb with no noun; use such before a noun phrase (with an article if singular countable).

Practice

  1. Complete: ‘The film was _____ boring that we left early.’ (so/such)
    Answer: so
  2. Complete: ‘It was _____ boring film that we left early.’ (so/such)
    Answer: such a
  3. Combine: ‘The traffic was very heavy. We arrived an hour late.’
    Answer: The traffic was so heavy that we arrived an hour late.
  4. Correct the error: ‘It was such expensive that I couldn’t afford it.’
    Answer: It was so expensive that I couldn’t afford it.

Connect

Practise telling so and such apart in result clauses.

Try Error Correction →

CEFR: Reading — follow cause-and-effect reasoning in extended texts.

Azizul Hakim
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