# Do non-English-speakers say "like"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 2, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920 "2011-02-02T18:30:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kamrusepas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@Kamrusepas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamrusepas)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/41 "2011-02-05T10:00:45Z")
In Finnish, there’s two common filler words (oh, all too common…) “Niinku”, meaning pretty much the same as “like”, and “tota”, which means something like “umm”. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/42 "2011-02-05T11:36:23Z")
Here in Busan, I’ve noticed quite a number of people saying [ye] or [nae] (both meaning [yes]) as filler. The choice for which word to use depends on the formality of the sitution; [ye] being more formal. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/43 "2011-02-05T11:37:23Z")
> [@Kamrusepas](#): > > In Finnish, there’s two common filler words (oh, all too common…) > > “Niinku”, meaning pretty much the same as “like”, and > “tota”, which means something like “umm”. It always surprises me when the true filler words\* (umm) translates into a multisyllable word. It would seem hard for such a word to actually take up any amount of time. \*I don’t consider like a true filler word in English, since it does often convey meaning. True filler words can replace one another (or silence) without changing the meaning of the sentence. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/44 "2011-02-05T12:51:40Z")
> [@eenerms](#): > > In Italy , I’ve heard ‘alora’ quite a bit as a filler. “Alora” means something like “well…”. The one I immediately thought of is “sai”, which means, and is used as, “you know”. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/45 "2011-02-05T21:59:51Z")
I remember ‘also’ (al-soh) being used a lot in Germany, which is roughly ‘so’. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/46 "2011-02-05T22:21:19Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > Not particular to young people, but in Dutch - as in English - plenty of [filler words](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filler_%28linguistics%29), are used. For example: > > _dus_ “so” > _of zo_ “or something” > _weet je (wel)_ “(do) you know” - Wikipedia notes that Dutch English speakers use “you know” an awful lot. > > That’s excluding the extremely common non-words such as ehm and uh (basically, errm or uh). The Dutch non-word filler par excellence has got to be “hè”. It took me ages to train that out of my English and I hear many otherwise near fluent Dutch English speakers screamingly signpost their Dutch-ness by coming out with stuff like “nice day, hè”. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/47 "2011-02-05T23:59:36Z")
Swedes use ‘typ’ in exactly the same way. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/48 "2011-02-06T17:42:04Z")
I have a Polish friend who speaks relatively good English but is really not fluent. He has a tendency to say “yes” where an English speaker would say “okay” or “right” or “eh” – so where I would say “we were talking, right, and then he…” he would say “we were talking, yes, and then he…” I wonder if this is because an analogous structure exists in Polish. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/49 "2011-02-07T00:33:30Z")
Someone mentioned the Spanish “este”. There’s also “pues” (identified sometimes with indigenous Mexicans when they speak Spanish). The British seem to use the phrase “sort of” in this way. At least, the phrase pops up a lot when it isn’t necessary, and wouldn’t be used by most Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/50 "2011-02-07T07:41:10Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Someone mentioned the Spanish “este”. There’s also “pues” (identified sometimes with indigenous Mexicans when they speak Spanish). You can identify people from thereabouts of Pamplona because they (we) tend to end proposals and questions with “pues”. “Let’s go then”, “what did he say then”… amos pues, ¿qué dijo pues? ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/51 "2011-02-07T14:28:51Z")
> [@Girl\_From\_Mars](#): > > I remember ‘also’ (al-soh) being used a lot in Germany, which is roughly ‘so’. Germans use “halt”, which means “just”, as a similar punctuation to “like”. A polish lad I knew when I lived over there would have every second or third word as “halt” much like a valley girl would say “like”. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/52 "2011-02-07T14:46:10Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Swedes use ‘typ’ in exactly the same way. Or “ba” (short for “bara” = only). ---
**Author:** ![Waldelfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f08c70/32.png) [@Waldelfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waldelfe)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920/53 "2011-02-08T23:05:59Z")
In Germany we say _ja_ (yes) or _ne_ (which isn’t really a word and means something like _right_) and if we think about what to say next we say _hier_ (here). We like to finish sentences with _weisst?_ (you know) or _Alter_ (dude). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-english-speakers-say-like/569920.md?page=2)