Like...

Posted by Smokey Stover on June 25, 2007

In Reply to: Like... posted by ESC on June 25, 2007

: : My daughter and I would like to learn how to speak like valley girls. We know you insert like before every phrase. My daughter is young so only the clean sayings.

: en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Valspeak

I think you've probably pretty much got it. "Like" is sometimes used as though it were the equivalent of "uh," in slightly inarticulate speakers.

But why would you want to do this? Valley girls are only cute in the movies. And misusing "like," while probably the single most common abuse of English grammar, is not universally applauded. I'm not here referring to the valley girl use of "like," but its use by otherwise careful speakers (like news commentators) as a conjunction. Too obscure? Then you have a good shot at learning valley-girl English. Just watch a lot of teen movies from the 1990s. But remember, old fads can mark you as old, as last year's model.
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