Like, I don’t know. Does it, like, bother you when you hear someone saying “like” all the time??
Supposedly, according to a recent poll, reported on ABC news last week…the word…”Whatever” was found to be the most annoying word to the majority of people in our culture.
Like, who knew? As you can, like, see, this may not be, like, the most annoying word, like, to me. The word “like” is like, fingernails down the, like, blackboard. I, like, hear it all the time. Out of the mouths of some of our most, like, well-educated, up and coming, young professionals. Injected, like, in the simplest of, like, sentences. Like, whatever.
Maybe, just because it is so annoying to me, it seems to land on my ears like some kind of perverse velcro. I seem to, like, have radar for it.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for liking as much as possible in this life. With so much to potentially dis-like, it could make one quite the grump. So, focusing on “liking,” in general, is a good thing… Until it becomes inserted every third word in every, like, sentence.
Like, let’s sail down memory lane for just a second and look at where this use of “like” came from. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think it was originally used to make fun of the gum-snapping, wack-a-doodle Valley Girl friends of Beavis and, like, Butthead–as a prelude to DUMB and DUMBER. It was meant to make fun of these goofy, overly made up, spiky haired, girls who were considered a total joke. They were spoofed, right along with those “wild and crazy” guys on Saturday Night Live, back in it’s hey day. Let’s just, like, tell the truth—like, it has never made anyone sound smarter……like, does it?
It reminds me of an interview done with Will Smith on The Actor’s Studio. His amazingly successful career has spanned being a super-selling rap artist, then sit-com television star… And on to the top box office draw, he remains today. When asked the secret of his success, he revealed a decision he made early on. He said, “I decided to stop sounding like an idiot.” His words, not mine. As a matter of fact, he went on to talk about the workshops he created to convince kids to “talk smart, if you are.” “Drop the rap. Develop the quality of both, your voice and your words, if you want to be noticed in a positive way.” Like, what a good idea.
So, if, like you are a “liker” or if, like, you know someone who is–ask them to replace “like” with the other word, which seems to fit in it’s place–”UM”. Would it, um, allow you to see how, um, distracting it is? Could you, um, maybe see how it would give, um, the impression that you are,um, one of the more, um, slow thinking people on the, um, planet?
‘Nuff Said.
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i use a combo of shea butter and aloe vera moisturizer. Works great. I use shea butter on my lips, around my eyes and nose (dry areas), My father swears by vasoline.
p.s. I dropped your name on Gina's post, Barb. ;)
This really tickled me. Whoopie Goldberg does a great valley girl imitation. But….I hate when they interview someone on television and they ACTUALLY talk that way! Good for Will Smith!
People : who pronounce Realtor, re la tur – I’ve even heard it on commercials, and one of those hg-tv shows. Arggggg; who confuse sit with set. ‘I sit and the book sits where I set it.’ The book does not set; who say than kewww instead of thank you…
WOW! I forgot about all those—-but you are right—those are teeth grinders too!
You know it really gets to me when, like every other word is followed by “you know”.I have turned off many interesting interviews with celebrity hockey players when like,you know ,they go on and on in that fashion.
And why is everything so “amazing” these days? Like,you know its amazing that we let these little foibles bother us to the extent of like,you know,madness!
Like, you are so right, you know? Another one comes to mind if you ever watch the political pundits on EVERY network. They all start every sentence with the word, “LOOK!” to empahsize what they are about to say. Well, I say, “Hey, dumbell—we ARE looking—we are watching YOU!” Don’t tell me to LOOK, I all ready am! UGH.
Everything is so amazing, it’s AWESOME!
Goodness yes. Who created the word “conversate” and why is its [mis]use so widespread.
And the conjugation of the word ‘see’–the first person past tense of which is “I saw,” not “I seen.”
My eyes! My ears!
kettle, pot. I should doublecheck my punctuation before casting stones. “….[mis]use so widespread?
Aaack! Yes! Makes me cringe!
I cannot articulate the eye-rolling disgust I experience when I hear “conversate”. It “kills me” to even type it….you are so right. It’s right up there with the “like” and “totally” phenomena.
Orientate — and all the rest of the -ate words that aren’t.
Anthropomorphizing natural phenomenon, ie: “killer” tornado. Using that as an adjective implies volition — and a tornado is just a tornado, no volition.
Same as above, but inanimate objects, for the same reason.
“Had went.” UGH!
I have a dear, y’know, friend who, y’know, uses, “you know” as punctuation. Drives me nuts, she’s an educated woman with much wisdom to impart.
***putting away soapbox***
Oh , I’m so glad you mentioned “orientate”.Every new person entering our facility has to be orientated.When I comment(as I do ad nauseum),”You’re either oriented or you’re not.”,they put on that-”What is the poor old thing talking about?”-look.
Screeching fingernails echo in my mind when I read unnecessary abbreviations such as lol, r u, thnx, and others in the genre which make me sit there and think.. if you have something to say, spell it out and don’t be so lazy!
English has the capability of expressing such beauty, why cheapen it with shortcuts?
Other annoyances, the misuse of its and it’s.. Its too late to go or the dog lost it’s bone make me want to scream. Another biggie for me is the use of ax instead of ask and the **tremendous** overuse of “disrespect” and “know what I’m saying?” No, I don’t.. why don’t you tell me? I left my mind reading turban at home.
Thanks for the chance to vent!
I still write, ha ha (old English for lol) ha ha …I crack me up. Well in my neck of the hood, it is very annoying to hear the “baf room” coming out of adults. And If one more person “ax” me a question I’m going to, well, do nothing except perhaps to vent a little. It is so hard to love everyone, or not be disturbed, by dialect differences, or speech mannerism, or accents, or undereducation, so I guess looking for content instead of context, would make me feel better. We are as humans each and every one a new being, no two personalities are ever duplicated.
We as evaluaters of ourselves and our surrounding are very judgemental, and critical as part of our biology and survival.
The movement away from good grammer, manners, is shocking. It is like the word “Bitch” when women and young girls refer to themselves in such a derogatory way, and do not care that love songs, movies, and all form of media use the word as if it were the proper word.
Some day it will be like the word “Hag” which is an ugly term in our day, before the Spanish Inquisition, it was a term used for a healing woman or mid-wife. I love the etimolgy of words. So friends, which is a word that stems from Freja and Freon loosley, “free love” it cost nothing, I can afford that.
I think the problem with the overuse of shortcuts stems from English being a very straightforward language, the language of the commercial world, so we feel comfortable falling into these habits. The computer didn’t help but the death knell was probably texting, which I heard is kind of tedious, so people want to get it over with using r, u, i (for I), 2, 4, and many other shortcuts I don’t yet understand.
Funner – when did fun become funner or funnest? I watch a lot of home improvement programs and I cringe every time that someone says, “We’ll paint it out”. Why not just paint it? Or how about “very unique” or “most unique”. Unique is unique – there’s no degree to it. It’s either unique or it isn’t.
I don’t have any, but a friend of mine cannot stand the words underpants and kneecaps….I have no idea as to why!
“ADMINISTRATE” used instead of administer makes me want to punch whoever said it.
Girls! Girls! These are great! They have made me think of another one! A friend of mine, who makes her living as a professional speaker always confuses COME with CAME. He “come” over to talk with me. I always want to say to her, “Come on!” Get it right! One time, I suggested she “look it up”…….the next time we got together….when she “come” over for lunch, she told me she appreciated my concern but she was from the Midwest and that’s just a regional expression like saying “y’all” when you are from the South! All righty, then.
Oh no, “come” is most definitely not a Midwestern-ism. It’s pure and simple bad grammar and geography has no part in knowing what tense one is using. Aargh!
I lived in the Midwest for a couple of years and I never heard that being commonly said, so I’m in your camp on this one.
There are many young people in and out of my home. The current word nominated for overuse/(mis)use is “apparently” I cringe. I have tried to tell them there are other words in the English language….. but “apparently” they have something against them.
Apparently, “apparently” is the new “basically.”
Sigh.
O what a tangled web we weave when first we practice….to find out what in bloody hell has happened to the English language. And I’m thrashing about in my own web trying to make sense of it all, tripping over acronyms, running headlong into 2, being used 4 to and too. You read it right…or is it write?…gosh, I wish someone would invent a spellcheck. Would someone please tell me when “much” was dropped from “so Much fun.” And Y? I tried to understand why “so fun” sounded so umm, you know, so…whatever. And then I remembered what we learned in fourth grade. “Fun” is a noun, class. “Much” is an adjective, so it has the honor of describing “Fun.” “So” is an adverb, giving it permission to describe “Much.” Now, when your little brother says “So fun” he’s making an adverb describe a noun, and we don’t do that, do we?” “Szzzzz–huh?”
However, and this is a big “however,” languages change, and this is ok, I’m told. It happens, and there’s no stopping it. And while the rules of a language aren’t like those of physics, there are agreed-upon conventions so we can all understand each other. So if we understand each other, is it really all right to say “so fun?” And if you were to write a book making southeners all sound like Bostonians, how would that sell?—well, maybe in the humor section. And content should count more than grammar, except that at times you don’t understand the content because…I’m in distress, here, and the tangles are getting tighter. Are there any English majors out there who might be able to tow me in?
Okay, how about “I seen” as in “I seen you standing over there” and the “f” word? Unfortunately, I have an almost relative who should be on the Jerry You-Know-Who Show as her talk is so peppered with the “f” word, I refuse to allow her in my house. It is purely ignorance at it’s worst. I have tried so hard not to judge her but I simply can’t help it any longer. She is vulgar and I want nothing to do with her. Why does this bother me so much?
Okay, how about “I seen” as in “I seen you standing over there” and the “f” word? Unfortunately, I have an almost relative who should be on the Jerry You-Know-Who Show as her talk is so peppered with the “f” word, I refuse to allow her in my house. It is purely ignorance at it’s worst. I have tried so hard not to judge her but I simply can’t help it any longer. She is vulgar and I want nothing to do with her. Why does this bother me so much?
Why shouldn’t it? Most of us use the lighter “cusswords” here and there, but when it descends into true pottymouth speech, it just reflects a paucity of vocabulary and plain indifference to how one is perceived as well as the comfort level of the listeners. Why should it be ok to allow yourself to be subjected to that? Or to anything else that offends you in your home?
I haven’t logged on for a while and have just spent a very enjoyable bit of time reading everyone’s responses. My degree is in English Literature, my husband’s is in Journalism. When they were growing up, our poor daughters didn’t have a chance. We lived in Texas for several years, and when we moved back “up North” but still south of the Mason-Dixon, all their new classmates were surprised they didn’t sound “Texan”. By the way, my personal tooth grinder is being referred to as “guys” . Ugh.
Ahem…as a Texan and a novelist, I must mildly protest your characterization of all of us as grammar dufuses. Some Texans speak correctly; granted most of us are in Austin but still… I think Bush ruined what was left of our reputation for language skills. Your larger point is correct, but not only for Texans. I’ve noticed a degradation of proper language use across the board.
Didn’t mean any disrespect. We loved living in Texas; one of our daughters couldn’t wait to return, she’s in FW at TCU now. Anyway,I wasn’t talking about grammar – I was talking about sounding Texan – you know.. pinched vowels and extra syllables where they aren’t supposed to be (i.e. “hayer” for hair) – but that’s not a complaint – I really do hate being called “guy” (and now I’m all anxious about my grammar ….:)
You might want to read John McWhorter some time. He wrote a good book on the degradation of language.
My head pivots around in circles and my eye starts to twitch when I hear the word “bring” used when “take” should be used! But, I have been a word snob for years. I worked for a huge IT corporation for years and came away with pages and pages of misused words, phrases and cliches. The one that started me on my quest was people constantly saying asterick for asterisk. Makes me crazy! And there are three mothers-in-law in my family who provide us with plenty of giggles with their word murder. We can’t understand why they can’t get it right. My mother-in-law says vegable for vegetable, Wal-Mark for Wal-Mart, vomick for vomit, and nosha for nauseous. It took me a while to figure out achigan was oxygen. My youngest sister’s mother in law gave us pollen for polyps and my other sister’s mother-in-law says scornices (we have yet to figure out if that is a sconce or a cornice), parMEsean cheese, and Neomorrison ointment for neosporin. I could go on and on and on!
It really bugs me when newscasters say something like “he busted the window.” How about “he broke the window.”
All the rest of the comments are right on target, too. And did you ever notice how on the news, the reporter seems to always pick the illiterate person with two teeth in his/her mouth to interview?
YES! and they appear to have the worst personal hygiene ever!
“Like” actually goes back to the beatnik days. Can you remember Dobie Gillis’ beatnik friend, Maynard G. Krebs? Or the beatniks portrayed on Rocky and Bullwinkle. But the point is a general lack of the thoughtful use of words.
My least favorite use of a word is “tasked” – turning a noun into a verb – as in (like
) “She was tasked to organize the event.” Arrrgh.
How about “hopefully” instead of “I hope that…”. And what has hppened to the word “lend”, meaning to borrow? Now, hopefully, the bank loans you some money. Our children are now “done” with their dinner, not finished.
Libby, Louisville, KY
The two things that drive me crazy are 1. leaving out “to be”. “The dishes need washed.” 2. Ending a sentence or question with at. Where is the form at?
In my ‘neck of the woods’ washed is always pronounced ‘warshed’. Did this ‘r’ come from Boston where the ‘r’ is dropped from car?
People have forgotten when it’s appropriate to use the word me as opposed to I, and no longer put the me or I last. “Join me and my girlfriends” should be, “Join my girlfriends and me.” (and not, “Join my girlfriends and I” – use the word you would use in the singular….”Join me” hence, “Join my girlfriends and me.” or “I am going to the store.” hence “Gord and I are going to the store.”) But the worst is the overuse of the word myself…..”Feel free to contact myself.” Ugggh!!! Now that’s like nails on the chalkboard for me! Do people think that it sounds fancier or more formal? Well, it’s just plain wrong. Myself is how you do something…I can get dressed all by myself!! But if you disagree……feel free to contact me!
Me, myself and I…..wholeheartedly agree with you, yourself!
I agree and posted a similar view of the reflexive pronoun’s misuse. You are correct about the double pronoun/direct, indirect issue as well: her and me went out. GRRRRR. She and I. What are they teaching in grammar class?
I don’t think it much matters (to the kids) what they teach in grammar class. Kids want to sound like their classmates, and if their classmates are saying “her and me went out” or “me and my sister” that is what they will say, too. I could hold forth about when they grow up they will have to rectify their mistakes, but actually, I’m not sure it’s going to make any difference against the tidal wave of language degradation.
I’m feeling free to contact you to agree
I felt free to contact you but it ended up somewhere else with just the beginning line. So, anyway, my biggest pet peeve is on the first two lines of your post. I have heard teachers saying “me and my friend (mom, brother)” and that just about flattens me. I’m going to start pointing this out gently to my preteen granddaughter who says this, also. It’s very difficult to unlearn habits of speech once firmly entrenched.
“unthaw” ? What is that – frozen?
How about the people who insist that there is an “r” in Washington…you know, “Warshington”. That has always annoyed me!
I make a distinction between incorrect grammar and regional dialects, being much less annoyed by the latter. The dialects become what they are owing to whatever immigrant population(s) migrated to a given area; or so I imagine, never having done a thorough study of the subject. In the south, creek sounds as if it is spelled crik, and the name Jenna sound to me like Jinna. And I have my own NYisms, trying (wo)manfully to keep “r’s” off the ends of words where they make others flinch. Tune(r) fish? Cuba(r) ala President Kennedy, etc. But languages are spoken before they are ever written, and spoken in various ways, so the spelling doesn’t always match. I know how to spell Cuba, tuna, and others no doubt know how to spell Washington. But ridding oneself of a regional accent is not an easy task.
In some areas of Vermont there is one word(s) which translates to “9 inch nails” on the chalk board for me and that is Usetovit
I haven’t seen this yet, what about “nuclear”. I grew quite critical of a former president who continued to say “new-kew-ler”.
Does anyone else cringe at being “woken up”? Whatever happened to “awaken”??? My late 8th grade English teacher would fall in a dead faint from which she may have never woken up.
Awaken seems to be dropping from the language. I feel very alone saying “The telephone awakened me” while everyone else is saying “I was woken up by the telephone” and this in places where you wouldn’t expect it.
I can hardly stand to hear well educated folks refer to the “artic” instead of arctic – makes me want to scream at the TV. How can they miss that first ‘c”? It make take a nanosecond longer to say but it is correct.
You’re right about ‘like,’ it’s a verbal tic with the young folk. One of my pet peeves is the misuse of the reflexive verbs, most particularly, ‘myself.’ I cringe when someone says, “He asked myself what to do.” or “Who was there? Myself and another guy.” There is a commercial here in Austin for a medical practice in which the doctor says, “Myself and my team have performed hundreds of these procedures.” Fingers down the chalk board for 1) the incorrect use of reflexive (unless he performed the surgery on himself and 2) mentioning himself first. It should be “My team and I…” It’s all I can do not to call and tell them. I’ve noticed that many are not using the subjunctive tense well, either. “If I was going…” should be “If I were going…” but the reflexive bugs me more. Julie
There is an adorable juvenile book about sibling jealousy, the title of which is “I Wish I Was Sick, Too.” Possibly (probably) the author knew this was ungrammatical but decided that since this is the way kids talk, it would sound stilted as ”I Wish I Were….” Personally, I think the second choice sounds ok, (because it is) and would have given the kids and the parents who read the book to them a tip on correct grammar.
The one that bugs me most may be a regional expression but where I live people say ” I went acrossed the street.” Drives me crazy! I gently tell them that you cross the street and walk across the street but to no avail!!!! How about ” Are you going with?” I am always waiting for the followup…
Ordinarily, I am very pro-business but when Woolworth’s closed, several years ago—I was actually relieved—because I knew it would be the end of hearing people say—-”Woolsworth” instead. There, I said it—never revealed this hideous thrill about the demise of someone’s business before.
I agree with the submissions already posted. I must add another that makes me cringe inwardly…irregardless. I’ll admit, this was also one of my mother’s pet peeves, and I guess it stuck with me. Since I was taught that it is impolite to correct someone’s grammar, I do refrain, but it is quite irritating to me. Along those same lines, any double negative use irritates me. “Don’t we have no more cookies?” Arrrrgggghhh!
How about “obliverate” (obliterate), or “supposably” (supposedly)…those two can reduce an otherwise intelligent individual to somewhere just above pond-scum in my view.