Remember
when you diagrammed sentences in English class?
I am far from
precise in spoken English; so, this is not a complaint, but an observation.
My wife and I
were walking in the University gym today when I heard a young girl talking to a
friend: ‘We left, like, two-thirty this morning….’
What part of
speech is like? Like is in common usage
with everyone under thirty – and many older.
It is not used as a noun, it is not a verb, it is not a conjunction, it is not modifying
anything – do we need to invent a new
part of speech?
I think we
should indoctrinate young children to replace like with what the fuck.
We left, what
the fuck, two-thirty this morning…
Like, Wow!
What the
fuck, Wow!
And I was, like,
I’m not going.
And I was, what
the fuck, I’m not going.
I said, like,
really?
I said, what
the fuck, really?
You have got
to admit this replacement would make speech a lot more colorful.
the Ol’Buzzard
Just drives me nutz to "like" hear it...
ReplyDeleteIf I'm watching a late night show and the guest starts up with that like shit...click next channel...
Just drives me nutz to "like" hear it...
ReplyDeleteIf I'm watching a late night show and the guest starts up with that like shit...click next channel...
It's like, crazy, right? One thing I hate is when I hear under 30's reading to someone or talking and their voice sounds like they ate reading a questing with every sentence. Their voice goes up an octave at the ending of a sentence as if there is a hidden question. It's like, really crazy.
ReplyDeleteAND it doesn't really change the meaning! Even better!
ReplyDeleteOh, I remember diagramming very well. I suspect it's not used in modern schools but it was effective in teaching sentence structure!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad my son is 20 plus years out of school. I can see him taking this to English class. As it was his Grade 9 English teacher retired at the end of the year. One day in class from out of no where and apropos to nothing he blurted out "some people after sex smoke a cigarette. Me I smoke a ham."
ReplyDeleteOh no!!! Not the F-word. Nothing debases the speaker more than that word. I immediately think "getto, uncouth, un-educated" when I hear someone use the F-word in casual conversation. Personally, I save it for really extreme situations, like the Trump/Erdogan conversation. WTF?
ReplyDelete