I've been noticing things that I haven't noticed in the past. People of all races and of all levels of education seem to use the filler word "like" at least three times per sentence. Is this an American thing? Do people say "like" a lot in other countries as well?
If this is only an American thing, how did it come about?
2007-02-21 08:26:00 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Cultures & Groups ➔ Other - Cultures & Groups
And I am not referring to "like, ttly OMG!!!!" I'm talking about the average use of the word. "She was like, he was like, we were like, then they like, it's something like" etc. And not only silly airheads use it this way.
Such a curious word...
2007-02-21 08:34:54 · update #1
Great question. I believe it's a filler word, replacing um. I am completely trying to deprogram my kids from using it. I have boys 8-12 and they use it incessantly!! They can't even speak a sentence without like saying it like every like two words or so. I just help them rephrase their sentence by asking them what could they say instead of 'like'. My kids are African-American but attended schools that were predominantly 'White', so it's hard for me to tell if it's across the board with all races. I will say that my kids play sports in our local community parks and recs (predominantly Black) and the kids on their teams don't use the word. So.........?
2007-02-21 08:52:33 · answer #1 · answered by Oh Suhnny Day 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I tend to use the filler "you know"... I know what you mean about fillers though, it's just a bad habit like using um or er or you know or whatever. My speech class book says that the fillers probably started out being used legitimately- asking you know? because you really did want to know if the person knew whatever.... I'm trying to break these habits, but it's, like, hard, you know?
2007-02-21 08:32:15 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
LOL, (Laugh Out Loud) it's a valley girl thing and it caught on with other people. Yes you might as well say it's an American thing but many of us don't talk like that.
2007-02-21 08:33:42 · answer #3 · answered by Kevin A 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No. Its part of American stupidity and whenever I hear it I think DUMB AMERICAN!!!!!
Its part of poor slang. Much like cool, dude, mad wicked (which to me should mean crazy and evil but apparently it means a good thing).
No, its not just an American thing. I know plenty of people with poor grammer from Canada and the West Indies who use it LIKE alot.
2007-02-21 08:30:12 · answer #4 · answered by HollyBean 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Its just used a reference...
like or as...to infer something....
it came about because we were taught this in school, and we became lazy and used the word faithfully...
2007-02-21 18:24:03 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i noticed that too
i tried to talk without saying "like" once it was a huge effort
i don't think they say "like" in other coutries but i am sure they too have a word that is commonly used.
i think the common use of "like" cmae to be becuase of the culture-media, chat rooms...
2007-02-21 08:30:40 · answer #6 · answered by reaching4x 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
ya it is part of america and like in spain or mexico they uses filler words like "que"
2007-02-21 08:37:53 · answer #7 · answered by DAVE 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i grew up Gulf Coast style and if you talked that way, you were from some other part of the country. we moslty thought it was a white ppl, California thang.
2007-02-21 08:31:25 · answer #8 · answered by Jerry_S. 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
It came from Valley Girls in the 80's...LMAO....everyone want's to be a Valley Girl!
"Like, totally tubular!"
2007-02-21 08:29:32 · answer #9 · answered by Just Me 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's a trend here that could be replaced with some other utterance. I remember when it was "you know".
2007-02-21 08:30:12 · answer #10 · answered by Repub-lick'n 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋