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I am sorry if this has been asked before.

I read the following in a textbook:

The examples are intentionally simple, so we can focus on the language features.

I thought that

The examples are intentionally simple so that we can focus on the language features.

is correct.

Can someone clarify?

Kedar Mhaswade
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  • You’re right that the second version is correct, but why would there be only one correct way to do something? Human language almost never works that way. Related: http://english.stackexchange.com/q/16883, http://english.stackexchange.com/q/148533, http://english.stackexchange.com/q/1095 – tchrist Dec 04 '16 at 02:16
  • Thanks @tchrist. It appears that the question Hank pointed me to seems to resolve the confusion. In the context of the paragraph, it appears that not only so that ... is correct, but so ... is wrong. – Kedar Mhaswade Dec 04 '16 at 02:24
  • Your two sentences *can* both mean the same thing as each other means. I would not call it “wrong”, whatever that means. – tchrist Dec 04 '16 at 02:25
  • The accepted answer on the original question says that so that ... is used to specify the reason of some action. My understanding of the paragraph in the textbook gives me the same impression. Hence, I thought that so that... (and not so... ) is required there. – Kedar Mhaswade Dec 04 '16 at 02:28
  • The two versions of “I did it so we could leave” and “I did it so that* we could leave”* mean quite exactly the same thing and neither is wrong: that that is completely optional and changes nothing. On the other hand, by adding the comma in “I did it, so now we can leave”, this means something else altogether, and that version does not allow a that. That's the important difference. But there are no commas in speech, so you have to learn to perceive both possibilities by context. – tchrist Dec 04 '16 at 02:30
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    Let's leave it at that so that we can avoid rather long discussion threads. – Kedar Mhaswade Dec 04 '16 at 02:35

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