The English language benefits from a multitude of long words and arcane words, but grammatically speaking, the most interesting words are the short and familiar ones – “so,” “as” and “it.”

“So” is a lovely word. It functions as adverb, adjective, pronoun, conjunction and interjection. Writers would be lost without it.

As a conjunction, “so” has stirred up a few leaves in academic groves. Consider: “You must pay your dues so you can vote.” Or, “Bring a big bottle, so that everyone can have a drink.” The question arises: In these constructions, is it better to use “so” or “so that”? The choice, like so many of a writer’s choices, appears to be a matter of a writer’s ear. There is no rule to instruct us that “so that you can vote” is better grammar than “so you can vote.”

We will be hearing “so long as” a good many times in the marrying month of June. The connubial bonds are long- term: “so long as you both shall live.” The happy couple would be wed as firmly with “as long as you both shall live,” but “so long as” dates from the 14th century and tradition is solidly on its side.

Thinking about a happy bride, I am reminded of “so” in the sense of “true.” The “true so” is declarative, and the pun is intentional: “The witness said things that are not so.”

There is an idiomatic “so,” in the sense of et cetera. “The senator talked about taxes and deficits and bonds, and so on.” And so on, and so on, and so on.

I’m not sure quite what part of speech is involved in the referent “so.” It crops up in, “Do you really think so?” Here we assume an antecedent, such as “George Bush is a valiant leader,” or “George Bush is a blithering idiot.” Who says so?

Consider a familiar dialogue. Bill says, “Will you forgive me?” And Hillary says, “I suppose so.” Actually what she says, more likely, is “Not yet!”

Another “so” is the subsequently “so,” as in, “We had a nightcap, and so to bed.” Some recognition must be given to the also “so,” as in “Venus played well, but so did Monica.” The double “so” is an old-timer. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the adverb “so-so” from 1530 and the adjectival “so-so” from 1542. Either way, it means “middling,” neither good nor bad.

The most familiar “so,” I believe, is the intensifying “so.” In “Jesus Christ, Superstar,” Mary Magdalen sings “I Love Him So.” If we work very hard, we are likely to be “so tired” or “so worn out.” Congress can do only “so much.” No matter what our legislators do, they will receive “ever so many” complaints.

There is the “so” that substitutes for “it,” as in, “If you must retaliate, do so at once.” All of us have met the fuzzy “so,” as in “Aunt Gertie says she will stay only a week or so.” This means that Gertie will be around all summer.

Let us not overlook the derivative so’s. “He is a so-called professor” dates from the 1400s. “The old so-and-so is pinching fannies” dates from 1596. As a casual farewell, “So long” goes back to the mid-19th century. An interrogatory form appears in the defiant “So what?”

I have now told you more than you really wanted to know about “so,” but so long as you’re hanging around, a word or so about “as” and “it” may be in order. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage devotes six columns to “as” in its various forms and five to “it.”

There is the “as” that means “because,” e.g., “As she had no money for a cab, she walked home.” Walt Whitman used a conjunctive “as,” in “I don’t know as it makes any difference.” E.L. Doctorow liked the prepositional “as,” in “He acted as her manager.”

“It” is a troublemaker. You would not believe that grown-up grammarians would argue over “It is I,” but such respected fellows as Samuel Johnson, Roy Copperud and the Venerable Fowler have ruminated on the matter. Consider: “It is I who is entitled to Gertie’s silver.” Or, “It is I who am entitled to the old girl’s candlesticks.” In reverse gear, “I am it” is clearly better than “I is it.” Aarrgh! The folks at Merriam-Webster say the conflict is not resolved, and you are not going to see it resolved in this space.

Let us adjourn with a motion to honor the two-letter English word most loved by writers. It is not “so,” or “as,” or “it.” Now and always, the word is “me.”

James Kilpatrick is a syndicated columnist.