Why are many Americans unable to string a sentence together without inserting "like" multiple times?

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AskAnAmerican-ModTeam@reddit

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PhilTheThrill1808@reddit

Why can’t English people pronounce “-ham” properly when it’s at the end of a word? Tottenham, Birmingham, Beckham…

If you want those words or any others like them to sound like “-um”, try spelling them that way.

Gee, it’s almost like language quirks are a thing everywhere.

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Vyce223@reddit

I like, think you like may be watching like too many stereotyped movies like really?

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Current_Poster@reddit

Though- and someone can (and probably will) call me wrong on this, but starting a conversation with "I mean" when the speaker isn't clarifying anything- that's relatively new.

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cakebreaker2@reddit

My wife uses like a lot. So much so that I've become sensitive to it and make every effort to never say it but its not easy

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This isn't unique to Americans, or English. It's called verbal filler. The French use "bah. hein" etc. The Japanese say "eto", and the Chinese say something that sounds way too much like the N-word for me to write it out.

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Leviathus_@reddit

My history teacher called it a crutch word

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Current_Mongoose_844@reddit

As a history teacher until 2029, your history teacher was wrong. Sure, don't use verbal filler in a written essay but that's it. Unless you have an actual reason (like you're speaking formally)-you're fine.

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Cheap_Coffee@reddit

No, if you fill you sentences with filler words people tend to stop listening to you.

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Leviathus_@reddit

Yeah I know now, but he was pretty much like that with everything

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Current_Mongoose_844@reddit

Sounds like a bit of a bellend

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Leviathus_@reddit

This was back in 2005 when he was like 60. I have him on facebook and judging by his recent posts your assessment checks out

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WittyOG@reddit

Everyone does do it, but there’s a difference between when it said in a “valley girl” type of way and when it’s used as a filler in a regular conversation

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MakeStupidHurtAgain@reddit

For the same reason so many Brits seem to have a series of TIAs while speaking. “Err, it’s that, err, they haven’t got, err, everything they need, err.”

They’re filler words.

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WhatABeautifulMess@reddit

My immediate thought was to wonder how many times err appears in Harry Potter.

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WhatABeautifulMess@reddit

just to annoy you in particular

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Penguin_Life_Now@reddit

Because they are from southern California

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Outlaw_Josie_Snails@reddit

Why? Because we can. It is known as filler words. Most countries have some type of filler words.

I watch international TV shows on Brit Box and Acorn. Your country (United Kingdom) uses words such as "Right," "Innit," "Actually," "You know".

In Japan, "Ano" or "Eto" are the standard "holding" sounds.

The French say "Euh" (similar to "um") and "Bah" are incredibly common.

Australia/New Zealand say "Yeah-no," "But," "As well".

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Dazzling-Astronaut88@reddit

I had an old, curmudgeon professor in college during the 90s. He taught a notoriously difficult class mandatory for my major. Since it was an upper level required course, you had to get a C or better and I knew many people who had to take the class twice to get that grade as he was a very hard grader. Anyway, this guy was extremely prickly about the use of precise, articulate language with regards to everything, considered it the foundation and would not tolerate any filler words or inarticulate expression. He had a huge vocabulary, used big words and spoke 4 or 5 languages. He would literally kick you out of class if you used “like” as filler. He would also notoriously ask difficult and challenging questions using challenging vocabulary and then select people who clearly didn’t wish to speak to answer. You had to be on point at all times and ready to retort confidently or he would take you down and embarrass the shit out of you. He made many students cry, change the majors and have anxiety attacks. I got a B in that class. Never used the world “like” as filler again.

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Evening-Cicada-1675@reddit

I’m British and I do this. We all have filler words.

Don’t be an arse.

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msh0430@reddit

Not uniquely American. But I do believe as of late we are the worst with overusing filler words. Especially young women.

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HoldOnHelden@reddit

Idk, why do many Spanish speakers insert the word “mira” all over the place?

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WokeUpIAmStillAlive@reddit

You are listening to podcast what do you expect from people who do podcast?

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GreenBeanTM@reddit

This is definitely a good faith question 🙄

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MusicSavesSouls@reddit

I haven't spoken, using the word "like" in a sentence, since I was 14. Please don't clump us all together like this. My 17 year old daughter doesn't even use the word like.

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Rob_LeMatic@reddit

In linguistics it's called a discourse marker, it's present in every language and it, um, serves, y'know, useful functions

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sandbagger45@reddit

Some of us can. What content are you watching? Lots of younger women overuse that word

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GenericUsername19892@reddit

Your English probably isn’t quite proficient yet if a couple likes as break points makes something incomprehensible for you. It’s actually toned down from how it used to be my friend.

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e140driver@reddit

Why are many Brits unable to travel to any foreign country without being drunken git multiple times?

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10leej@reddit

It's a mental thing. When speaking and recording you want to constantly produce something. So you get off script and start talking form memory which eventually your brain essentially runs out of things to continue speaking or running into something you want to really push on but you have no clear way of explaining it.
So you instinctively fill in the blanks with "like, umm, err" and such

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vanillablue_@reddit

Funny, I watch British content creators who do the same.

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MrLongWalk@reddit

OP is British and will have a hard time believing this.

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dotdedo@reddit

In my generation of millenials at least, it just became a generational thing. There was a trend called "Valley Girls". Basically tldr preppy, blond hair, usually talked with an over exaggerated California accent (The Cali accent in general was popular)

Part of that was using like as a stalling word. Stalling words in languages are a word people fall on to when they're thinking such as "um" "uh" and now "like"

People were just saying like a lot back then and it's stuck for people in my age group.

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ThirteenOnline@reddit

First, “like” often functions as a filler word, similar to “um” or “uh.” People use fillers to buy time while thinking. In fast, informal speech especially in casual conversations this happens a lot. It’s part of what linguists study in Sociolinguistics, where speech patterns are tied to context and audience.

Second, “like” has developed specific meanings beyond filler use.

Introduce an approximation (“It was like 20 minutes”)
Signal a quote or thought (“She was like, ‘no way’”)
Soften statements (“It’s like kinda difficult”)

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