Why "like" is like important

While the excessive use of the word "like" can be an annoyance, this “filler word” has a meaningful purpose and offers a grammatical contribution. A recent study has proven that there specific instances during our speech in which "like" is appropriate to use. Humans rely on "like" to better convey messages or ensure that what they said was properly understood. In the article
‘Like’ isn’t a lazy linguistic filler", I learned that adding "like" to a sentence does not change its grammatical correctness and it emphasizes the message we are trying to share.
As someone who frequently says “like”, this article intrigued me because I had always thought of it as another filler word such as "you know" or "um". However, I began to understand how "like" is not just another filler word when the article explained the natural and unnatural places to use the word. Unlike “um” which could appear in any part of a sentence, "like" is used in some places but rarely in others. For example, “I am going to complete this assignment in like an hour” sounds more natural than “I am going to complete like this assignment in around an hour”. Even though we use "like" unconsciously, we tend to put it in places that make more sense than others. I am interested in researching how our brains decide what and what not sounds natural and how this decision may vary between age groups, cultures, and geographical location.
In addition to reading the article, I watched a video on why people say “like” so frequently. I found that it is said the most when people are nervous or trying to make a decision. Some individuals consider those who overuse the word “like” to be unintelligent. However, the video stated that intelligent people may actually take advantage of words such as "like" to emphasize a point or ensure that others are understanding what they are saying. I had personally never heard of this before or noticed anyone during a presentation using "like" to place emphasis.
In conclusion, this article proved that "like" is not just a word used by valley girls but by all of us, a word used purposely and with grammatical importance. It’s critical to understand that like, while used with frequency, is not useless. Criticizing an individual on over-using the word "like" can make them feel like the rest of what they are saying was not valued and affects their level of confidence in public speaking. Language prejudice is real and if you just gave a big presentation and someone commented that you used "like" a lot, that can negatively affect how you felt about your performance. Trust that people know what they want to say and learn to like it.


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