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Um, like, and you know???

23:22 / 18.02.02

I heard a recording of me talking today and I was utterly horrified. Now, I'm a pretty intelligent and articulate young man... on paper. I sounded like an absolute fuckard. I can't verbally form a mere sentence without sprinkling it with words and subwords like, "UM, LIKE, and YOU KNOW"? Why? Am I mentally retarded? Most importantly, how can I stop? Are there any other post-valley-girl speakers out there that can give me tips on how to eradicate these words from my vocabulary?

23:30 / 18.02.02

Pay attention to what you're saying. When you pay attention and notice yourself saying "um" or the like pinch yourself or whatever you want to do. Its like training a dog. When you say "um" its bad and you punish yourself. Thats what I did to stop myself from interspersing every sentence with um's.

23:47 / 18.02.02

That sounds a bit painful though.

23:52 / 18.02.02

It could be. If you don't like the whole idea of self-inflicted pain think of some other negative reinforcment.

The only time I have trouble with my speech now is when I'm presenting something in front of a class and lose my train of thought.

00:38 / 19.02.02

Negative reinforcement, with the exception of guilt, does nothing for me.
Being aware of this bad habit is enough. Just keep it in the back of your mind. Or in the front. And make sure you talk to yourself often; then, you can take great care not to say "um, like, and you know."

13:12 / 19.02.02

It's true. Also, if it's for public speaking, rehearsal really matters.

Oh, and actively try to substitute words like "well" or "so" or "thus" for "ummm" and "y'know."

13:55 / 19.02.02

Speak slower and concentrate.

Know what you're talking about, be specific. Generic descriptions are dross. Avoid 'red', tell me it's crimson, maroon, terracotta, vermillion, or scarlet. Tell me it's blue- or yellow- sympathetic. Tell me it's blood red or rose.

The more you examine the world and attempt to communicate exactly what you see, the more you will communicate yourself and the less likely you are to say 'stuff', 'like', 'shit', and all the other non-words people use.

13:56 / 19.02.02

Alternatively, you could just pay more attention to how much everyone else does it. That should make you feel a little better without the need for beating yourself up.

Usually I just filter out that stuff, but when I actually try to be aware of it, I hear it all the time. Like, y'know?

pointless and uncalled for

14:01 / 19.02.02

The current "Hollywood Ditz" use of the word like has to be the single most grievous abuse of the English language.

I was like............

You were like that were you? As in in a state that was similar? huh? How about this, and tell me if this is just a little far out there, why don't you tell us what you actually were, just once in your annoying lives.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Excuse me while I go suffer an embolism.

21:11 / 26.04.03

I've noticed myself saying "like" a lot, and its soo irritating.
And she was like [insert expressive grunt here]
Its UGLY UGLY UGLY use of language. I think i'll make an electrocution buzzer that recognises "like" in the wrong context, that will frazzle a toe every time i do so. Painful, yet [i would imagine] effective.

21:37 / 26.04.03

I can empathise with you impulsive I was equally horrified at a videotape of myself I made to prepare for an interview. Although because of the format I also noticed a facial tick when I get nervous. But it was almost worse to hear my every sentence punctuated and distressed with "um","like" and "you know".

21:45 / 26.04.03

I used to have a teacher who took points off for every single like or um used during an oral report. Broke the habit real fast.

22:30 / 26.04.03

A lot of Americans speak very fast and the theory I've heard is that if you speak fast you must insert "rubbish" words into your speech to give your brain time to catch up with your mouth. I hasten to add that this "theory" did not come from a respecable nuerolinguistic source. In fact I may have made it up myself, I can't remember. However, slow down your speech too much and you'll sound retarded anyway, so it's a rock and, like, a hard place? (I don't mind "like", it's the constant upwards inflection at a sentence's end that really fucks me off). Anyway, it's not important to clean up rubbish words from everyday speech. They may actually serve a good purpose in helping you linguistically converge with your peers (people's speech converges when they are expressing solidarity, friendship, membership of a certain group etc.). If you leave them out altogether you could sound too formal and maybe come across as unfriendly. Of course they have to be eradicated for interviews, presentations and suchlike but, um, I wouldn't like, y'know, know about that?

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

22:38 / 26.04.03

Word fascists.

23:00 / 26.04.03

They're words that you use to signal that you still have the floor but are thinking. There's nothing wrong with them, and everyone uses them, not just dumb people. "Like" and "you know" especially can have semantic content - like can be a de-intensifier, a quotative, or a discourse marker; you know can introduce a question. It's natural & there's nothing at all wrong with it.

23:10 / 26.04.03

Those words are called verbal punctuation, and everyone does it. We use the words um and er and although I despise it, also now like as a way of punctuating what we are saying. If you listened to someone who was speaking without doing it, the'd either sound a/ really false or b/ like they were doing a voice-over for an advert.

There's an short and interesting article which mentions it here and which also talks about other conversational tools too.