Marcie clings to “you know” and can manage to use it five times in what would otherwise be a three word sentence. Drives me absolutely insane but I can’t bring myself to ask her to stop.
This girl? She speaks in fragments? And every sentence? Rises to an interrogative?
<Closes his eyes, grits his teeth, and with heavy heart gives yojimboguy an A on the quiz.>
(His was the most correct answer from a classroom of idiots.)
I remember a history teacher I had back in the 8th grade who liked to make fun of people who said “like”. For instance, he would ask someone a question about something, and when they start the response with “Well, it’s, like, blah blah blah” the teacher would interrupt with “I don’t want to know what it’s like, I want to know what it is.”
Actually, my mom (who is Finnish) grew up saying the Finnish word for ‘like’ in the same way - as filler. It like, transcends the English language!
(Inspired by Podkayne’s post - credit where credit due)
I see a gap in the market for a new Bible translation here:
I’ve noticed, and had it pointed out to me as well, that I often tend to toss an incredible number of likes into my speech. Enough to make the most stereotypical valley girl think I’m a bit of a freak. I can concentrate and speak slowly and avoid using the word, but if I just speak normally, it tends to sneak in between all the other words. I’m considering behavior-modification electrodes.
It really sucks, because I can otherwise (and with the exception of various other linguistic crutches, but to a much lesser degree) manage to sound like a reasonably intelligent person.
I have a tendency to correct or joke with people who use the word incorrectly, but only if I know them well enough to know they’ll accept it in the lighthearted manner in which it is intended. For example, a co-worker friend of mine will say things like “So I bought, like, a jacket.” So I’ll say with a grin, “Was it a jacket or like a jacket?”
I was broken of a lot of poor language habits growing up (though I sometimes lapse). I remember being corrected endlessly for saying “on accident” as a child. “I did it on accident,” I’d say to which my mom would reply, “You did it BY accident.”
When I was a dj at my college radio station, I worked hard to stop using “uh” and “um” as filler while my mind worked on what to say next. (It sounds awful to “um” on radio.) It takes practice and concentration to get out of the habit and find other ways to bide your time without leaving dead air.
ok now, i’m 23.
i say like a fair amount.
i was going to post saying that i don’t really say it that much because i didn’t think i did, and i asked one of my coworkers whether i say it a lot, and managed to say it twice in one sentence. when i was consciously thinking about it.
i don’t think it’s the word that drives me crazy though, it’s the tone some people use with it. it started with the valley girls, who had this particularly airheaded, vacuous way of saying like when it wasn’t needed.
i am educated, i have a bachelors, and i work in an intellectual environment. i use correct grammar, and for the most part i don’t say stupid things (though i have my moments).
just because someone says “like”, that doesn’t mean they’re devoid of intelligence or learning (like someone said with george washington). it gets annoying when they add it where it isn’t “like” needed, rather than just using it as filler or in the place of the word “said”.
I’ve read that ‘like’ used in this way actually has a recognizable grammatical role.
It serves as a marker that indicates the time or location of the events, of which the following words provide a snaphot.
According to this theory, ‘like’ is often used when describing conversations; it may precede a quoted conversation, but it directs the listener to look at the totality of the quoted words, plus style and manner of speaking, body language, and other context. I have an image of a speaker almost acting out an interpretation of the described speech.
Apparently this reflects a change of thinking to a much more ‘immediate’, visual style of describing things.
I don’t know whether this is true, or even makes sense, and I really wish I had a cite for it, but…
It’s, like, a way interesting and intriguing idea. 
One of the stations in the Quad Cities used to have a contest with very simple rules. A person called in, and all they had to do to win the prize (I don’t recall what they gave away) and talk about any subject for something like thirty seconds without once using an ‘uh’, ‘umm’, or ‘like’. Some people could go from valley girl to perfect english with no problem, and other people just couldn’t avoid the umms.
I wish they still did it, it was quite entertaining and interesting.
wow sun, i was going to post that I use “like” in the exact same way myself: when i am quoting someone and am meaning to paraphrase and/or express the way in which it was said as much as the actual content.
I also use “like” as an interjection when I am comparing things “this sun box is like 5 times faster than the old one.” It’s sort of a combination of an interjection and comparative.