How good and correct is it to use "like" in spoken English in such a way?
I mean the ones like:
- "I was like - hey, bring me a coffee - and she was like - you go get it yourself - and then James came in and it was like - wtf is going on in 'ere?"
asked Nov 29, 2016 at 10:57
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1It's informal and colloquial. You'd happily use it in a text, you wouldn't use it in a formal report.– user8543Nov 29, 2016 at 11:27
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1Sometimes this isn’t so much a matter of “good and correct” as it is a matter of overused to the point of being annoying. @user8543 - I wouldn’t encourage its use “happily" in a text; it seems more of a verbal construct than a written one.– J.R. ♦Nov 29, 2016 at 11:35
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@j.r. I have a lot of text conversations in various formats - like is used prodigiously and effectively (if, as you say, sometimes annoyingly).– user8543Nov 29, 2016 at 11:39
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2@user8543 - I just didn’t want a learner to read your initial comment, and conclude that, like, they should start sprinkling it all over their text messages. ;-)– J.R. ♦Nov 29, 2016 at 11:40
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@j.r. that's, like, just your opinion, man ;)– user8543Nov 29, 2016 at 11:42
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1 Answer
That usage was once laughed at as being a caricature of a certain small southern-California subculture of shallow, dim, over-privileged teen-aged girls, the "Valley Girls". Then, as its use spread via television, it lost that particular subcultural connection.
The people who talk like that are generally not respected very much.
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1Can I use it written English in a conversation between two characters? Nov 29, 2016 at 12:06
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1Yes, you can. Make the characters young and socioeconomically low in the working class.– MMacDNov 29, 2016 at 12:20
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Typically this was an upper class thing in the early 90s, and it seems to have bled out into the tech sector. Quite bizarre. Even seeing it with guys.– sas08Jan 6, 2019 at 10:45