Hi there
Here's a rough guess .... it's probably been about 15 or 20 years since young teens started inserting the word 'like' into their conversations:
"So he ... like ... walked into the classroom and he ... like ... was ...like ... wow..."
I think the word 'like' came into conversations around about the time the popular teen movie "Clueless" came out. The rich ditzy main character - Cher - used it a lot.
But, still, I could never understand how 'like' was adopted by young people in the first place. And what's more, the word has been carried forward with them. Now, that those teens have grown up, they are still saying it.
But a few years' ago, I chanced upon something that was sort of mind-blowing.
The article I was reading said 'like' had taken the place of a word that older people have always been saying.
Huh? What was this article talking about? I had no idea...
Apparently, the word 'like' has taken over from the word "um".
Whaaaat?
Both the words 'um' and 'like', being used in the same context are, in other words, a pause in a sentence whilst the speaker is thinking of what to say next.
How's this:
"So he ... um ... walked into the office and he ... um ... was ... um ... wow."
Goodness, um, who'd have thought....?
But it, like, totally makes sense.
