Therefore I just sort of stay where I am and

Therefore I just sort of stay where I am and complain, like I am doing now… what is the mean of ‘’ sort of stay’’

“Sort of” is commonly used in informal speech. It changes the meaning to be uncertain or incomplete or indefinite. In this example adding “sort of” makes the statement less emphatic.

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“Sort of” here is a single unit that serves as an adverb. The “of” is firmly attached to the “sort” and does NOT function as a preposition. Such is the fun of colloquial speech.

Thanks Khardy, would you give another example

Mother: Did you clean your room?
Child: Sort of.
Mother: Well, go back until it’s done.

That means the child probably did not clean his room or cleaned it incompletely. The child does not want to admit plainly that it was not done, or that it was not done well. So the mother would then ask for an explanation, or she would assume that it had not been done. In this example “sort of” probably means “not really”. This is a little different than the example that you quoted.

The origins of this usage might be related to this usage: “I found some sort of weed in the garden.” In this example, “of” is a preposition, and “sort” is a noun which means “type”. I found a weed in the garden, but I do not know what type it is. It is indefinite, undefined. (The word “some” makes it indefinite: some type, some person, some thing (=> something) is indefinite.) This example would be considered Standard English.

Your example, and my example between mother and child, are idiomatic, informal, colloquial examples. “Sort of” is taken from the standard usage, which involves a noun and a preposition, and are used together as an adverbial phrase, without any sense of noun or preposition.

This is a perfect example of the need to learn phrases, not just words. Idioms often do not make sense when treated as individual words.

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