I can’t stand when people start a sentence with the word “look.” I find it to be abrasive and feel there must be a better word choice. It is something politicians often do. I know I’m not the only person that feels this way, so I went to the Internet in search of someone who agrees that starting a sentence with “look” is inappropriate and I found Patrick’s Place (a blog that is 20 years old). In a 2021 article he says:
“In a Facebook group about grammar, someone asked about politicians who are constantly starting sentences with look. It’s a pet peeve of mine!” There are several politicians and other notable people who are always starting sentences with look. I suppose it’s a little better than starting every answer with so. But let’s be clear: Both can be maddening. The original poster asked an interesting question. Since we’re talking about the spoken word, shouldn’t they use the word listen instead of look? Patrick offered his take, saying neither was correct. Constantly beginning a sentence with either look or listen amounts to just using a crutch word for no good reason. Start the sentence with whatever immediately follows the offending word. Someone immediately defended starting sentences with look or listen. She said that in public speaking, such “crutch words” can be “very useful in preventing people from tuning out from tedium.”
I can certainly imagine scenarios where a speaker would want to emphasize certain portions of a speech. But that generally happens toward the end of a passage where the speaker is about to make an important point. By all means, you can certainly validly emphasize such points. That’s not what we’re talking about. We hear it every day on news programs. People begin the first sentence in answer to the first question with look. They haven’t reached a point worth emphasizing. Look (or listen) is only the first syllable they utter. Perhaps that’s an indication that the speaker should put more energy into the speech rather than inserting meaningless words that become so overused to cause more annoyance than attention.” Yes, Patrick, we are on the same page.
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