Use of "Like"

<<He replied: Like two months.

Here the word "like" is acting as a filler (as a Valley Girl Speak) or does it mean "almost"? I am confused on this. >>

In that case, "like" means almost.

No, "almost" implies less than... here it could be less than, equal to, or greater than.

- Kef

"Like" is used here by almost everyone college-age and younger (and often older) for two purposes:

First, as has been mentioned, as a filler.

Second, as a replacement for the word "said." There are huge groups of young people who NEVER use "said," other than perhaps in writing.

Combining the two, a typical conversation might be:

"And my teacher was like, 'Where is your assignment?' And I'm like, "What's the rush?" And there's like three others arguing, and they're like, 'He's like the hardest professor.' And I'm like, ..."

Ad nauseum. But I'm afraid it's becoming standard colloquial American English. I hear immigrant kids using it all the time--along with the ubiquitous "uptalking." (Making a declarative sentence sound like a question.) So, like, get used to it?

In my dialect of "British" English, we use "like" as an ending to sentences.

For example:

"Are you going into town, like?"

"What's for dinner, like?"

This caused problems when I moved to a different area of the country. I remember asking someone, many years ago, what was upstairs in union bar at university, saying "What's upstairs, like?". He looked at me all confused and answered "well, it's nice". After that, I stopped using "like" to end my sentences.

Hmm is Matt from Geordieland?

Oh! So close. Sunderland.

<<Second, as a replacement for the word "said." There are huge groups of young people who NEVER use "said," other than perhaps in writing. >>

Why don't they use "said," in speaking but only in writing?

I have said it before - everyone I know is using this ‘like’ speak - even my mum. I have no idea how it spread because although I am aware this horrible usage started off in the US it is not as if we are THAT exposed to it. I mean, most American films or programmes don't have this way of talking in the dialogue (do they??) so I have no idea how and why this has caught on in the way it had.

The usage of the word ‘like’ has replaced "thought", "said" or "went" as a ‘filler’ in this instance, so it is not as if the word has filled a need because there were perfectly viable words to use in this way in the first place.

I am sorry but to these ears this is one of the worst ‘Americanisms’ I can think of. I work with many Americans and I have always found the way the ones around my age would use the word ‘like’ as bloody annoying but now there’s no escape!!!!!!!! AArrrgghhhhh!!!!!!!!

And when you add it to many English dialects that already end many sentences with ‘like’, as explained in one of the post’s above it seems that all people say these days is LLIIKKKEEE. Please stop!!!!!!!!!

Whoops. Matt's a Mackem, like.

It's not an Americanism anymore.

Dan Saff : That's right, man.

Good knowledge of the north-east, like.

Does anybody watch "The Hills"? Those girls cannot construct a sentence without a single "like" or "y'know" thrown in the mix. For example, the backstabbing Heidi Montag uttered these eloquent words to her co-worker about her frenemy, Lauren Conrad:

"I just can't believe she's talking to her crazy, abusive ex-boyfriend who went to rehab and jail...and she can't forgive me? It's like, is she out of her mind? So we try to send them over drinks, to be like, let's feel out the water, like, you know. So they send them back, so we're like, okay."