Elevate Your Speech: Reduce ‘Like’ to Sound Smarter and Impress Customers

LIKE

Stop constantly saying “LIKE” and you will immediately sound smarter!

With over 1000000 words from which to choose in the English language why does it seem as if the word “like” is used well like so often? Perhaps because it tops many of the lists of most overused words in present day vernacular. Many of the top entries of words that have lost most of their original meaning include awesome really literally ridiculous whatever seriously and nice. But like takes top honors.

This misuse and overuse of the word dates back to the 1970’s when it became popularized by California’s “Valley speak”. Many young people use the word as filler in sentences cluttering their speech and making them sound unsure of themselves at best and uneducated at worst. Unfortunately the word has become more of a nervous linguistic tic or a lazy speech habit.

Common Misuses of “Like”

• Making approximations: You will need like ten dollars. Using roughly or about in this approximation would be more descriptive.
• Modifying adjectives and adverbs: It was like the biggest spider I ever saw. Here the word like adds absolutely nothing and should be omitted.
• Before a quote: Yelled or shrieked could easily be substituted prior to this quote she was like “get out of my room.”

Like is one of those words that can be used in several different ways without being misused. It can be a noun a verb an adverb a preposition and a conjunction. However it has become so overused as a placeholder or fallback word and misused today by politicians television commentators entertainment figures and the like (used purposely) that it has almost become acceptable.

Decline in Vocabulary

It is interesting to note that the February 2000 edition of Time Magazine reported that in 1950 the average 14-year-old had a vocabulary of about 25000 spoken words. By 1999 that number had dropped to 10000. This is unfortunate since a person’s vocabulary reflects his or her general knowledge. We can all draw our own conclusions as to why but my list would include texting email Facebook poor education and way less reading and writing.

A Day at the Ballpark

One recent Saturday afternoon a friend and I went to a Kansas City Royals game. Seated directly behind us were two cute girls in their mid-twenties I am guessing. The young ladies more interested in their conversation than the game used the word like so many times we were both stunned. The conversation we couldn’t avoid overhearing went from noticeable to amusing to downright annoying all because of their constant overuse of the word like.

Retail Communication

I have often noticed sales associates at retail stores I talk with misusing the word. If you are catering to a more educated upscale middle-aged customer your managers and salespeople should be aware of this. Few things would turn a customer off faster than to have a salesperson tell them “like those shoes are like totally you” or “like that dress comes in like other colors too. Should I like see if we could like order it for you?” Without embarrassing anyone you could get the point across by making a simple game out of it. Every time the word like is misused the accused puts a quarter in a jar by the register. This idea creates awareness and the habit would get broken quickly in a fun non-threatening way.

Finding Alternatives

Most of us overuse and misuse words from time to time in our everyday casual speech. I’m not suggesting that we all need to join the Linguistic Society of America but can we please try to find alternative words for like? Seriously it would be really awesome if we could literally do that. If not like whatever dude!

Ritchie Sayner

Ritchie Sayner

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