# Do other languages have the equivalent of abusing "like" in every sentence? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 13, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336 "2009-05-13T20:23:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/1 "2009-05-13T20:23:08Z")
Listening to some people in line in front of me today, and for the umpteenth time getting distracted by the overuse of like, I wondered if other languages have this type of language virus? Example for the few who don’t know what I mean: “I was, like, going to call him, but when I, like, looked in my purse, I, like, lost his number, and I was all, like, ‘Oh crap!’” Also, do they teach that overuse in ESL courses these days? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/2 "2009-05-13T21:00:41Z")
You might guess that such things are called “filler words”, and wiki (of course) has a list of fillers used in various languages: > **[Filler (linguistics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filler_(linguistics))** > > In linguistics, a filler, filled pause, hesitation marker or planner is a sound or word that participants in a conversation use to signal that they are pausing to think but are not finished speaking. These are not to be confused with placeholder names, such as thingamajig. Fillers fall into the category of formulaic language, and different languages have different characteristic filler sounds. The term filler also has a separate use in the syntactic description of wh-movement constructions Every... See also “discourse marker”. ETA: > [@](#): > > In Russian, fillers are called слова-паразиты (vermin words); the most common are Э-э (‘eh’), это (‘this’), того (‘that’), ну (‘well’), значит (‘it means’), как его (‘what’s it [called]’), типа (‘like’). In a few languages, a filler word apparently translates as “like”. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/3 "2009-05-13T22:29:52Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > You might guess that such things are called “filler words”, and wiki (of course) has a list of fillers used in various languages I did not know that - thanks for the link! ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/4 "2009-05-13T22:36:09Z")
The **exact** equivalent of “like” in Argentina is “tipo” wich means something like eh well “like” “Y entonces tipo… , le dije que tipo…, se fuera y tipo… como que se enojo and…” “And then like i was like “go away” and then like he like got angry and” Is extremely anoying here too. ---
**Author:** ![Miscue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@Miscue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miscue)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/5 "2009-05-13T22:41:46Z")
10 years or so ago I had a few female Venezuelan friends who would use ‘es de…’ a _lot_. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/6 "2009-05-13T22:47:11Z")
In Malaysia and Singapore they use “lah” as a filler word which isn’t even a real word. They even use it when speaking English. “No problem, lah” ---
**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/7 "2009-05-13T22:49:03Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > “I was, like, going to call him, but when I, like, looked in my purse, I, like, lost his number, and I was all, like, ‘Oh crap!’” For the last part (“I was all, like, ‘Oh, crap!’”), is it still a filler word? Isn’t the phrase “I was like” being used as an equivalent to “I said”? ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/8 "2009-05-13T22:54:53Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > In Malaysia and Singapore they use “lah” as a filler word which isn’t even a real word. They even use it when speaking English. “No problem, lah” I was about to cite that one, but it’s a little different (IMLE) because it generally seems to incur at the end of a sentence or thought as a way of, I don’t know, making it seem a little more light-hearted or indicating they acknowledge something’s funny or ironic. Or sometimes just to sound “cute.” I’ve also heard “mah” used by HKG girls in similar fashion. But unlike like, I don’t hear those words randomly sprinkled through sentences. In Japanese there are a couple of true filler words I hear a lot of – “ano . . . .” and (phonetic) “eto . . . .” They seem to have more of a connotation of – wait a minute, let me think, hold on, that’s what I was going to say. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/9 "2009-05-13T23:48:05Z")
The Chinese equivalent sounds like “Nigga.” You never get used to people walking around all day saying “Nigga nigga nigga…” ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/10 "2009-05-14T00:44:03Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > The **exact** equivalent of “like” in Argentina is “tipo” wich means something like eh well “like” > > “Y entonces tipo… , le dije que tipo…, se fuera y tipo… como que se enojo and…” > “And then like i was like “go away” and then like he like got angry and” > > Is extremely anoying here too. I noticed a lot of “¿Viste?” and “¿Que te parece?” filler words and phrases. After every pause, ¿viste?, they seem to fill in the silence, ¿que te parece? ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/11 "2009-05-14T01:01:54Z")
In Montreal, at least, the use of the filler “genre” is currently pretty popular among young French speakers. It means “type” or “kind” (of something), so it’s very close to the English “like” filler. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/12 "2009-05-14T01:12:09Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > In Japanese there are a couple of true filler words I hear a lot of – “ano . . . .” and (phonetic) “eto . . . .” They seem to have more of a connotation of – wait a minute, let me think, hold on, that’s what I was going to say. In Japanese, the filler word that’s closest to “like” is _ne_ (or _na_, depending on where you’re from.) It’s a particle that’s supposed to be added to the end of a sentence and translates more of less as “isn’t it?” However, many people sprinkle it all over the place. This is especially pronounced among younger women. “Yesterday, he came over to my place” goes from: _Kino, kare wa watashi no ie ni kita no_ to: _Kino ne, kare wa ne, watashi no ne, ie ni ne, kita no_. (Literally, this, like, comes out as like: “Yesterday like, he like, my, like, place, like, came, you know.”) In Canadian French, the non-word _lâ_ (originally from _là_ – there), along with _tsé_ (from _tu sais_ – you know) shows up a lot. _Tsé, lâ, le gars, lâ, ben lâ y’est venu chez nous lâ…_ – “You know, like, the guy, like, well, like, he came over to my place, like…” In French French, _là_ is also used frequently, but it’s usage isn’t quite as extreme as the Canadian _lâ_ ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/13 "2009-05-14T01:18:37Z")
> [@Miscue](#): > > 10 years or so ago I had a few female Venezuelan friends who would use ‘es de…’ a _lot_. Is it ‘es de’? I may be wrong but I always thought it was ‘este’. Other filler words in Spanish are ‘pues’ (Central America) and ‘dizque’ (Dominican Republic). Arabic has ‘ya’ani’ which has been adopted into Hebrew, and it sort of means ‘like’. Talking of which, ‘sort of’ is ‘like’ another filler, ‘you know’. ---
**Author:** ![Casserole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b77776/32.png) [@Casserole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casserole)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/14 "2009-05-14T01:20:34Z")
Can this thread be a pitting too? Pretty please? 🙂 Jay Leno had a 10 year-old guest on his show on May 5th… Alec Greven. Apparently, this kid’s written a book on how to talk to girls, even though he hasn’t had a girlfriend. I suppose that passes for success? In any case, this kid wouldn’t stop using “like” in his speech! “Mom’s want you to clean rooms, so she’s like ‘clean your room’, and you’re like ‘I don’t want to’, and she’s like ‘I’m going to take away your dessert’, and that’s when you’re like ‘okay fine’, and that’s when she’s like ‘okay, that’s good’, like. like. like.” _ice pick in eye_ There’s a youtube of him appearing on the Ellen Degeneres show, but out of fear that I might **actually** harm myself (or the TV), I won’t bother watching it. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/15 "2009-05-14T01:26:07Z")
> [@BrightNShiny](#): > > For the last part (“I was all, like, ‘Oh, crap!’”), is it still a filler word? Isn’t the phrase “I was like” being used as an equivalent to “I said”? I would translate it as, “I said to myself, ‘Oh crap.’” The phrase “I was like” usually (IME) means “I felt like” or “I said to myself”, and is sometimes followed not by any other words at all but by a facial expression reenacting the mood of the moment. I would still call it a filler word because it’s a bit lazy. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/16 "2009-05-14T01:28:29Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > You might guess that such things are called “filler words”, and wiki (of course) has a list of fillers used in various languages: > > [Filler (linguistics) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filler_(linguistics)) The first one in that list is the Arabic “yani.” My wife is Egyptian and I hear this constantly peppered into Egyptians’ speech (didn’t know it was common in other Arab dialects). It’s equivalent filler in English is “I mean.” ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/17 "2009-05-14T01:38:44Z")
All the Bulgarians I know think _dobre_ and _aide_ are commas: stuff you sort of throw down into a sentence and hope it fits. 🙂 They mean “good/ok” and “come”, respectively. I don’t know if this is an ex-pat thing or if it’s very common. **Kyla** would know better than I. ---
**Author:** ![Miscue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@Miscue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miscue)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/18 "2009-05-14T01:52:00Z")
> [@Martha\_Medea](#): > > Is it ‘es de’? I may be wrong but I always thought it was ‘este’. You could be totally right. I’m not a native speaker and none of our communication was written 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/19 "2009-05-14T02:53:58Z")
In Denmark, you can throw in a mild cuss word–_sgu_ or _sgu da_ in pretty much the same places you would say “like” in English. On the island I lived on, people all say _ikke også?_ all the freaking time. I do it too. It gets slurred to _ik’osse_ and is somewhat the equivalent of saying “you know?” in every sentence. It marks you as from Fyn just like saying “eh?” marks you as Canadian. ---
**Author:** ![Sheepish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@Sheepish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sheepish)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336/20 "2009-05-14T03:03:08Z")
In Chile, teenagers use “onda que…” (pretty much “like”), and contract “pues” into “poh”. In fact, the further south you go in Chile, the more contracted “pues” gets. In Punta Arenas, the most southerly city, they just close their mouth in the shape of a ‘p’ and cough. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-the-equivalent-of-abusing-like-in-every-sentence/496336.md?page=2)