Um, ah, eh and like - NOT amateur radio

Have you noticed how many young people say "like"? 

At one time this bothered me, but it is the new "um","ah" or "eh". Language is always evolving. 

Recently I noticed how often we say "um", "ah" or "um".  I counted 4 in a very short period.

Like - NOT amateur radio

At one time I would have been appalled by the overuse of "like" and the fact that younger people tend to go up at the end of sentences. 

You have only to observe how much speech has changed in the last 100 years. I expect if we heard speech from 500 years ago we would struggle to understand it. 

And to think how languages have evolved in the last 1000-2000 years!  No, we have to accept that speech and language will be forever changing.

"Like" is the new ""er", "um","hmm" or "ah".

I never fail to be amazed how many different languages there are (in Europe alone) and in how few generations these happened. In the last 2000 years there are, perhaps,  80 generations only!

Grumpy old man - NOT amateur radio

You can tell I am getting old!

Have you noticed that most young people go up at the end of a sentence? You can almost tell how young someone is by this, not forgetting "like" liberally sprinkled throughout sentences.  It is, like, annoying like, you know what I mean?

I try hard to ignore this, but find myself counting "likes".

Grumpy old man - definitely.

BOF - NOT amateur radio

On Mondays I travel into and out of Cambridge on the bus. As a boring old f**t (BOF) I have a new hobby - "like" spotting. A teenage girl got on the bus and she said "like" 52 times in 2 miles. As a BOF I said nothing, you know what I mean like.

How I dislike "like" - NOT amateur radio

If you see a group of young people, it seems every other word is "like".  Is this the new "um" or "ah"?  I am definitely becoming a grumpy old man as I find this very annoying. It grates on me so much.  I want to go up and say,"do you realise you said "like" 12 times in the last 2 minutes?". Then I think, what is the point? No some things are best not said.

Official "old fart" - NOT amateur radio

I am officially a boring old fart!

Coming back from my U3AC course on the buses today I could not help overhearing the word "like" interjected many, many times in every sentence by most youngsters! Also, most under 30 years old seem to be in love with their smart phones. In days gone by we'd actually talk, but these days this would be too much to ask.