Jill and Steve discuss the word 'like'
Steve: Hi Jill.
Jill: Hello again.
Steve: Like Jill, like you know, like, like, I mean like, have you noticed that people use the word like all the time?
Jill: You know I have and even in some of our Linguist content, I can't think of an item off the top of my head, but there have been people who we have been interviewing and who have said like very often and we've had learners post on the forum, what does like mean in this sentence and in some of the sentences the person said like, then one word, then like again. Steve: Right.
Jill: Then we just go back to them and say this is just a filler. It really doesn't mean anything and it's not a very good way to speak and typically, I think young, younger people speak like that. Typically I think teenage girls.
Steve: Right.
Jill: It's very common among girls and younger, younger women; early 20s and teenagers. Steve: Not just girls either but let's get back to basics here. Like has essentially two meanings. One, it means I like someone or something. In other words you think it's good. It pleases you. You like it. You can like a person, you can like food, you can like a painting, you can like music.
Jill: You can like a country.
Steve: You can like a country. You can like a language. Like. And the second one means similar to.
Jill: Right.
Steve: What would we say? French is a bit like Spanish.
Jill: Right.
French is similar to Spanish.
Steve: Similar to Spanish.
Jill: Same meaning.
Steve: And there are more examples. He looks like his brother. She looks like a movie star. So, he looks similar to.
Jill: Right.
Steve: I think that's where this other abuse of the word like comes from. Alright, so like, like, in other words similar to, similar to the situation. So, like, so, so, he says like, so, so, like he was like, like, I mean it's just terrible. Jill: It's terrible. Steve: It's terrible and what it is, is its laziness. Rather and I think we would encourage all of our learners to try to think through and to express themselves as accurately as they can and every time and I guess the same exists in other languages but it's just like, so like, so like. Jill: He went there and like did that like in 15 minutes. It was like, like amazing.
Steve: Yeah, like wow, like man, like.
Jill: Yeah and it just doesn't sound very good. Steve: And you know the other thing that I often say and I don't know if you'll agree with me. You're allowed to disagree, I won't tell. Jill: I won't be fired? Steve: Ok. But you know its slang and in a sense that use of like is somewhat slangy. Colloquial casual language, slang. While it sounds bad at times in the mouth of a native speaker it sounds even worse coming from a non native speaker. Somehow we expect the non native speaker to speak a more neutral, a more educated form of the language and if on top of whatever other difficulties they may have with the language and their pronunciation and so forth if they start to speak like you know, like so, like, like he did, like, I mean it's even worse than when it comes from a native speaker. Jill: Yeah.
Steve: So.
Jill: Yeah, I agree. It just sounds, it sounds strange, very strange. You kind of have had that before when I've been talking to somebody and I can't even really describe it but it just, it sounds very wrong, very out of place. Steve: You don't like it. Jill: No I don't. I mean there are slang, there are lots of slang words and phrases I think that people who are more advanced, we have some learners who are very advanced, and they use them and they use them correctly and it's actually ok with me. I think that's fine. But until you are at a very advanced level, Steve: Right. Jill: I think it's best to avoid. Steve: To avoid the slang. But if we stay with the word like here there are some sort of structures, some forms that I think are useful. For example, you don't like the way they speak. You don't like the way they speak. You don't like it when, you don't like it. We often, that's a phrase there; we don't like it when non native speakers use slang. So, or another one is what's it like? Jill: What's it like, yeah. Steve: What's it like, what's it like, what was it like over the weekend? You were, you know, whatever, traveling in the interior.
Jill: What's the weather like today in your country? Steve: What's the weather like. Right.
So, that's a common use of, yeah, what's it like, what's it like? What's it like in Japan? Jill: What's that class like? Is it… Steve: I beg your pardon? Jill: What's that class like, that course like? Is it interesting or is it boring?
Steve: I like the course. Ok, there are two different meanings of the word like.
Jill: That's right. Steve: Right.
Like is often used in polite phrases too. Would you like, would you like a cup of coffee?
Jill: Instead of do you want a cup of coffee?
Steve: That's right. Would you like, ah yeah. So I think we've kind of covered it. Like is a very useful word. You know you like doing things, you like eating, you like, you know, listening to music and so forth but the abuse of the word like is not such a good thing.
Jill: No.
Steve: Not such a good thing. So, alright. How about the word too, have we done that?
Jill: I don't think so, no. Steve: Too, t-o-o. First of all, lots of people spell it wrong.
Jill: Oh, most people spell it t-o.
Steve: T-o. I mean there are three different spellings of too.
Jill: Right.
T-w-o for the number two, t-o for the preposition and t-o-o for, as it means as well and I guess it's an adverb. Steve: Yeah, I guess so. I guess that would be an adverb although, who cares?
Jill: Exactly. As well, I always, I always, you can put also or as well in the place of too.
Steve: But you can't say also bad, but you say too bad. Jill: Too bad.
Steve: Too far. You know, too much. Too much is commonly used. So, yeah, it's an adverb because it's used with adjectives. Jill: Right.
Steve: So, you have it if red, it's too red. You know, it's strong, too strong. We would say the coffee is too strong. So it's used a lot in that sense but they as well, it comes back as I want some too. Jill: I want some too, I want some as well, I would like some also.
Steve: Also. Yeah.
Jill: I would like some too.
Steve: And those words there are all essentially interchangeable, right?
Jill: Right.
Steve: Any other little words that we should, here's a word, think. You know? You think of something or you think about something. It's different, ok? When you think of something what does it mean? You are reminded of something. You think of the time when you were you know, Jill: When I was a child, Steve: Right. Jill: and we went to Disney Land and you know I think of that time. I think of what we did there.
Steve: You might even think of when you went to dinner last night. You might think of that. But would you think about the dinner you had last night?
Jill: Ah, well.
Steve: When will you, well I shouldn't ask you, when would you think about? Jill: Yeah, I mean, I mean it's very common to say, I think about it often. You know, so if you think about something a lot you think about it often, but you could say I think of it often as well.
Steve: But when you think about something you are thinking about a subject that has some substance there. You are thinking about, you're thinking about your friend because your friend has some, has either some great success or some difficulty so you're thinking about, I mean I'm trying to get at this difference of think of, Jill: Yeah, I don't know that… Steve: and think about. When you think about something you're thinking about the content, some issues that are there, not necessarily. Jill: Yeah, not necessarily. I mean because I could say I think about that trip that I took often. I think about it often.
Steve: I think of it.
Jill: I think of it often.
Steve: That's right. Jill: I think I would use either. I think either would be correct.
Steve: Ok. What do you think of George? What do you think about George? Which would you use?
Jill: Of. What do you think of somebody so what is your opinion of them?
Steve: Right but you can say what do you think about.
Jill: Yeah you can. You can use either.
Steve: We don't have any clear cut, it's interesting. Jill: I don't know, I think probably for the most part you could use either. Steve: Yeah. I think that when you think about, you are using, you are reflecting, you are using your mind more where as think of is just remembering things. But it's not always the case. It's like, that's why rules are bad. Jill: Yeah.
Steve: Because whatever you say there's the opposite. When you think of someone, you know, I was thinking of the time we were, I was thinking about the time when we were, it's the same. Jill: It's the same. Yeah.
Steve: Yeah, so I think, you know I hate to say this, but I think if people read enough, listen enough, if they observe, think of, think about, they will slowly get a feel for it and if we, who speak the language all day long can't define the difference any better than that, Jill: the difference, don't worry about it. Steve: Don't worry about it. That's right. If you get it wrong you might be corrected or maybe you can't get it wrong so. Ok. Well yeah. I guess this gets back to what we try to stress in all of this and that is you know, try to avoid looking for rules too much. Try to, you can't get away from the need to just listen and read a lot. Now people are always looking for short cuts.
Jill: Yeah.
Steve: But.
Jill: Just tell me a rule for this and I'll know from here on out that this applies and I can always say it like this but unfortunately that's just not the case. There are so many exceptions.
Steve: Not the case. Yeah.
Let's look at some of these sort of phrasal verbs that people you know, send, send, send away. Send someone away.
Jill: To send someone away. To make them leave. To make them go somewhere. You send someone away to prison, Steve: Sure. Jill: or to anywhere.
Steve: You send someone away, right? But you can also send away for something.
Jill: Right.
Which means you order something and you wait to receive it.
Steve: Right.
Right.
So you send away for a magazine or you send away for, Jill: something on eBay. Steve: on eBay.
Jill: You buy something on eBay.
Steve: Right.
So, either you send someone, tell someone to leave the place, you send them away, beat it, go, get lost, or you get on eBay and you send away for you know a nice mug so you can drink coffee in it.
Jill: Exactly. Right.
Steve: Ok. And, then when you get the mug and you don't like it, what do you do? Jill: You send it back.
Steve: You send it back, exactly. So, yeah. The, you can also send for something.
Jill: Send for something.
Steve: Or for someone.
Jill: For someone, yeah.
Steve: In other words, you ask them to come.
Jill: You call on that person. You are asking them to come.
Steve: That's right and you send for, typically you send for something, you wouldn't send for something on eBay, you would send away for something on eBay because that's not something you yet own. Jill: Right.
Steve: But you might send, yeah, you can send for the doctor or you could send for some documents.
Jill: Yeah, send for your mother; send for a member of your family.
Steve: Right.
Jill: If you're sick in the hospital you may send for your child, your mother or somebody to come visit you. Steve: Right.
Then of course you can also send someone off. Someone is leaving on a trip; you give them a send off.
Jill: Yep, you see them off.
Steve: Yeah, or you see them off, right. So, I mean in sports sometimes if in the soccer tournament if they had two yellow cards and they got a red card and then they were sent off.
Jill: Sent off the field.
Steve: Yeah. Now if you're hungry at home, what do you do? Send out for some, Jill: Ah, some take out. Steve: some take out, pizza or Chinese food or something like that. So, yeah, those are a few examples with the word send. Again, I mean we cannot possibly cover all of the phrasal verbs here but again, we encourage people when they are going to be confused when they see words like send in different applications save the word send and see what comes up. Then you may want to save send for or send in or send out and see what happens. Ok, I think we kind of covered that. Thank you Jill.
Jill: Thank you.
End.
