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I’ll admit it: for a period during my late 20s, I used to use the word like as filler - pretty much the way teenagers were at the time, and still do. It wasn’t conscious, and I certainly didn’t use it in every sentence, nor did I emphasize it in a Valley-girl kinda way (e.g. “And he was, like, no way!”) But it served the purpose of filling in sentence gaps much the same way the French will throw in an ehhh or a maybe, when they’re thinking about the next word they want to use. (e.g. “Ehhh, maybe, ehh, ihhh, you want we go to dinner, now, ehh, maybe, ehh…”)
A colleague of mine came into my office the other day complaining that someone accused her of inserting “y’know” in every other sentence. (e.g. “So, the best way to, y’know, slice a bagel, is to, of course, use a knife.”)
I told her about my like addiction a decade ago and informed her that I was eventually able to stop using the word altogether by consciously using the phrase: “it’s not unlike,” which, of course, means the exact same thing. It slowed me down so much, that, eventually, I had to do away with the filler word because, let’s face it, who really wants to have a conversation with someone who speaks like this: “So I was not unlike, get out of town, dude. And he was not unlike, excuse me?”
Of course, people still use like and y’know as fillers pretty much willy-nilly. The question I ask you, the loyal Word Wrap readers is this: what’s your favorite, or, perhaps LEAST favorite filler word of all time? And, maybe even better, how about we nominate some new words to replace the old hackneyed standbys?
It’s not even a word but “um” is almost enough to cause violence in our household. We both speak for a living and “um” removes credibility faster than a Jerry Springer appearance. I think of this “word” like an ant. One isn’t really that big of a deal but more can ruin your day. “So, um, when um, planning for, um, retirement there are several, um, factors to, um, take into account.” Agh!
posted by Jessica Q on 4-20-2007 at 7:53 am
If I hear “basically” or “actually” thrown into a sentence where it doesn’t belong one more time, I’m actually going to basically throttle the speaker.
Also, I’m getting very weary of using “literally” to place emphasis on a statement, where the speaker does not mean “literally”
As in, “i haven’t eaten in four hours. I’m literally starving to death” ….Oh, really?
posted by Allison on 4-20-2007 at 7:53 am
You literally took the words right out of my mouth, Allison.
posted by Jane on 4-20-2007 at 8:07 am
The reality is……
posted by Sally on 4-20-2007 at 8:20 am
There is/was a Mad TV reoccuring skit with a couple that improperly used ‘literally’ over and over. (on a side note, it’s so funny that I literally laughed until blood ran from my eyes and my face fell off. Literally.)
The clowns who misuse the word in real life should be forced to watch it just to see how stupid they look.
posted by EV on 4-20-2007 at 8:23 am
Having said that
posted by JohnG on 4-20-2007 at 8:25 am
Sometimes a filler is the use of a synonym with more syllables. Utilize for use–what exactly does that add? Multiple for many–how’s that help? WWW uses nine syllables instead of the three in world wide web. At this point in time instead of now does not add gravitas (I hate that word!) Take me back to the bad old days of and-uh. And while I’m on a rant, what’s with the spreading use of the long I?? The other day a news deliverer on TV referred to ant-eye-freeze. Help me Rhonda–save me from the hillbillyization of American English! What’s next, hem-eye-sphere, dem-eye-monde, mag-neye-tude?
posted by Alice on 4-20-2007 at 8:30 am
I had an art teacher in high school who used the word “literally” excessively and incorrectly. We used to take notes on how many times she said it - I think the record was 30 times in an hour-long class. “The lion is literally jumping out of the painting at you.” Oh really?
I went to a panel last week where a girl would always end her sentences with “… and whatnot.”
posted by srah on 4-20-2007 at 8:51 am
Blah…Blah…Blah…
posted by DW on 4-20-2007 at 9:03 am
I think they use ‘probably’ in jersey and surrounding areas. i.e. “Probably he didn’t even want to go but probably they made him”
I say ’so’ a lot. so…
Everyone around here also says ‘i’m all/he’s all’ too. “haha, i’m all laughing and stuff.” “he’s all, way to go, and i’m all, whatever.”
posted by Scarlett Taylor on 4-20-2007 at 9:09 am
I had a friend that would end each sentence with “you know what i mean?” or “you know what im saying?” and to answer her question (rhetorical or not)- yes, i speak english.
posted by Rebecca on 4-20-2007 at 9:09 am
There is one person at work that we keep track of the ‘ums’ when she talks at meetings. VERY annoying. Her UPM (ums per minute) are too high some times to bear!
I also dislike ‘like’ and tease my daughter, like, everytime she, like, says it. (must be, like, a teen thing)
posted by Vince on 4-20-2007 at 9:20 am
I use the word “right” or “seriously” all the time … I use it to agree with someone or even as a response … for example, someone will say, “I just couldn’t believe that he broke up with me last night!” and I’ll respond with , “Right!?!” or I’ll respond to someone by saying, “I know, right!” or “seriously …”
its a habit - but I guess I graduated from using, “like” - so I’m doin better, “right”?
posted by Laura on 4-20-2007 at 9:25 am
yada, yada, yada
posted by WizardBoy on 4-20-2007 at 9:28 am
I know a lot of people who end up sounding like the drive-thru box in Dude Where’s My Car with how much they use “And then..”
posted by Parker on 4-20-2007 at 10:01 am
I come from leicester, england where alot of people would say innit, man and like all in the same sentence i.e “it was like greased lighting man innit!” It drive me insane.
posted by megan on 4-20-2007 at 10:09 am
Megan, does innit mean “isn’t it?” or…?
These are fabulous guys! I especially love Vince with the UPMs!
posted by David on 4-20-2007 at 10:15 am
‘Dude’ and ’seriously’ are my problem children. This is one of the rare instances they’d be together though…
posted by Jeff on 4-20-2007 at 10:51 am
“Hopefully” is a word that is often used (and misused) as a filler word that leads off a thought or sentence, as in “Hopefully, we’ll hit our targets this quarter.” Apparently, we do a lot of things “hopefully”, but we may not be very hopeful.
posted by dman on 4-20-2007 at 10:53 am
Yup. My fillers are definitely “seriously” and “dude”, as well. I’ve also got a problem with saying “yeah, no.”
And then there’s the tendency to start sentences with “Sooo…yeah.”
Ugh. I’m working on it. Seriously.
posted by fl0ra on 4-20-2007 at 11:08 am
I unfortunately am one of the ones to overuse like, misuse literally, and say “s/he goes” when relaying a conversation.
the sad thing is, I’m an English major.
I’m only 22 though, I’m hoping to one day grow out of it. it’s said so frequently by people my age, that you kinda just pick it up after a while. it’s completely subconscious, I don’t even realize I say it half the time.
so, on the behalf of 20-somethings, I apologize.
posted by Kate on 4-20-2007 at 11:10 am
‘You know’ is the hardest one for me to swallow, especially when it’s used in excess. I had a prof who said it so often, I had to count once. She said it about ten times in less than five minutes! It’s gotten to the point that every time I hear someone say ‘you know’, I just want to yell, ‘YES, I KNOW! MOVE ON ALREADY!’
posted by Shann on 4-20-2007 at 11:13 am
“To be fair…”
And also, “At the end of the day…” I hate that one!
posted by Julia on 4-20-2007 at 11:15 am
I’ve had the same Spanish teacher for three years in high school and only this year have I noticed that she constantly says “okay” and “all right.” (Actually, someone pointed it out to me.) Some fellow classmates have counted almost 200 utterances of the word “okay”… and it’s a 45 minute class… and they didn;t count when she said “all right” which she does a lot… and she doesn’t lecture us the whole time… and…
posted by Joe on 4-20-2007 at 11:46 am
I agree with “at the end of the day”. That’s a really big sports one, like:
“like I said before”, or “like I said”, even though the person hadn’t said that before…
posted by Jim on 4-20-2007 at 12:00 pm
“…and stuff like that”. I swear when my DH leaves this planet, I’m putting this phrase on his headstone.
posted by KJ on 4-20-2007 at 12:03 pm
I had an instructor who said, “em Kay” over and over again. I couldn’t not think of Mr. Makie from Southpark. I literally counted where he said it 60 times in five minutes.
This guy was a short, heavy, young, black man. Not Mr. Makie-esque at all.
posted by Juligirl01 on 4-20-2007 at 12:13 pm
“Absolutely!”
Seriously, I can’t watch television without hearing at least one “Absolutely”. HGTV, TLC and DIY are absolutely the worst offenders. Now that I planted the seed, you’ll hear it everywhere. Sorry!!
posted by Brandy on 4-20-2007 at 12:42 pm
How about the phrase “needless to say”? I know it’s not really filler, but it’s like “literally” in that if it was literally needless to say, like, why say it? Y’know?
posted by Sara on 4-20-2007 at 1:44 pm
Albanian speakers do the same thing. The use “do me thene”, which means “as if to say”, but just serves as a filler. It can get quite annoying.
posted by daviddurres on 4-20-2007 at 1:49 pm
I have a co-worker who says, “It is what it is” all the time. It’s very annoying because making such a statement contributes nothing to the conversation.
posted by Jessie on 4-20-2007 at 2:16 pm
I’m 24 and have the bad habit of saying ’seriously’, ‘um’, and ’so…yeah’ as my fillers. I don’t know how I pick these phrases up, but I tend to cycle through them every few years. A few years back my main one was ‘dude.’
One of my friends inserts ‘you know what I mean’ several times per sentence when she speaks in front of a group, and she also speaks at least twice as fast as usual when she does this.
posted by Marie on 4-20-2007 at 2:50 pm
Every time my boss wants to make a change to a project he starts his sentences with “Just for the sake of argument…”
and then
“How hard would it be to…?”
I just want to grab his shirtfront and scream “It doesn’t matter how hard it would be, it’s my friggin’ job!!!”
posted by Andie on 4-20-2007 at 2:55 pm
I speak fluent Spanish and say “verdad que si?”, which roughly translates into “am I right?”. It’s annoying and I’m trying to stop.
posted by ajadoniz on 4-20-2007 at 3:57 pm
I’m going to put it out there that I’ve seen an alarming increase in the use of the words “truthfully” and “honestly.” Truthfully, if you feel the need to precede a statement with either one of these reassurances, I automatically associate your integrity with that of a car salesman or an infomercial host. “Truthfully”? Honestly!
posted by bill on 4-20-2007 at 4:24 pm
There must not be many Yankees on this site; New Englanders use “wicked” quite a bit(It’s wicked cold out!)…
posted by Andrew on 4-20-2007 at 4:31 pm
This isn’t quite on topic, but “exetera” and “expresso” both drive me crazy. I have science teacher who won’t acknowledge the fact that “et cetera” has a T in it, and I think that I’ve started flinching whenever it happens.
posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 4-20-2007 at 5:54 pm
I’m like, he goes, okay, and the news people with the never ending ‘’AS WELL'’ one would think people would get tired of hearing themselves wear out these tired phrases.
posted by Pat on 4-20-2007 at 6:09 pm
The English language was made by us will always be abused as it is humanities chew toy. Embrace the suck, I guess, um, and like, such is life, right!?? Sooo……anyways
posted by Randy Randy on 4-20-2007 at 6:12 pm
i hate to say it, but i am constatally using fillers. i think it’s subconcios now. mine are the average ones… ‘like’ ‘u know’ ’so anyway…’ ‘dude’ ‘ya get it?’ and of course, the ever famous ‘um’
im guilty and i know it, it’s just hard to stop ’cause i hear them daily. maybe in the summer i’ll break the habit… who knows
posted by ashley on 4-20-2007 at 7:33 pm
I’m an umm-er myself, which kind of hiders me at my job as a hostess at a restaraunt (”Here are you’re menues, and, um, I’ll be right back with water”).
One thing I’ve always hated is when someone says something wrong and, without skipping a beat, says “Just kidding!” and continues.
posted by heather on 4-20-2007 at 10:54 pm
I can feel for Shann #22. I had a professor who said “you know” all the time. My friend and I counted about 20 “you know”s in 10 minutes one day. The worst part of this habit is that she has her PhD in linguistics. LINGUISTICS!! Sheesh, you’d think she’d know better.
posted by Janel on 4-20-2007 at 11:24 pm
In defense of the professors or people (who think they are) in authority or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, self-acknowledged boring speakers overusing variations of “do you know what I am saying?”- that filler seems born out of trying to engage people in whatever it is your topic may be. Unfortunately, it goes from being the occasional non-rhetorical question to this evil little rhetorical demon. I myself ended up with the habit of finishing spoken paragraphs with “do you understand” until I had a very good friend of mine answer the question every single time I asked. Eventually, the answers became so annoying that for my own sanity I had to drop the question. Do you understand?
posted by Paige on 4-21-2007 at 4:31 am
I think my own worst thing is not thinking my sentences through to the end, so that they just sort of hang there and I add a “soooo….” that trails off into nothingness. Usually this is because I finished a complete thought, but I landed on the wrong note.
“We’ve got lots of information over there, so…”
posted by srah on 4-21-2007 at 5:17 am
It is hard to have a smooth conversation with a “so’er”. When they finish their sentence there’s a pause, which then makes you think that it is okay for you to start, but then they start with “sooo…, you know.” AHHHHHHHHH! It can be likened to starting a very old car in a cold morning. Once a “so” gets in the conversation, both of you start interrupting each other and then stopping, and then going.
posted by ajadoniz on 4-21-2007 at 8:58 am
“Actually”, “Fer Shure” (sic), “Totally”, “Dood” (sic)
posted by Doc on 4-21-2007 at 9:11 am
I hate it when men call everyone “Dude.” I am female, there are many other acceptable, friendly nicknames. Don’t call me dude or man.
posted by Paula on 4-21-2007 at 10:52 am
No offense, but…
I knew a woman who slipped that phrase into at least half of her sentences. Once I heard her say “No offense, but child molesting is just wrong” in casual conversation. I had to fight back the urge to respond with “As a child molester, I am deeply offended. You’ll be hearing from my lawyer.”
That social circle also boasted a guy who began every conversation (and introduced every question) with “so…” and a girl who constantly paired “y’know” with mundane statements- “I was late for work today, y’know what I mean?”
What a fun group. It’s a shame how they were all strangled.
posted by Andrew on 4-21-2007 at 4:42 pm
Random. This gets used instead of “weird” or “odd” as in “This really random thing happened today.”
Not a filler, I guess, but annoying. The real filler killer for me is “basically” as mentioned by another poster.
And I used to work with a guy who would start every sentence after the first with “On the back of that” as a way to connect them. One of our employees called him out on it and he stopped. Good.
posted by Charlie on 4-21-2007 at 5:41 pm
IRREGARDLESS - it makes my brain hurt
posted by Jane on 4-21-2007 at 6:20 pm
Mine would be “just sayin’”, as in “I just thought I should throw that out”, but it is sometimes necessary, as I also have a habit of saying outragous and random things.
For an example, interrupting the teacher during chem with “Did you know you can spell NINE INCHER out of the periodic table? Oh…Sorry…Just sayin…”
posted by Anson on 4-21-2007 at 6:22 pm
I’m guilty of using “from there/here” as filler in a conversation. “… and from there we can see …”
posted by Tim on 4-21-2007 at 8:07 pm
My oldest friend, who died recently would say, “The fact of the matter is..” at least a couple of times in every conversation. She died at age 66. I recently had an opportunity to visit with her lover of 26 yrs. She was his ESL teacher when he moved to US from Haiti. I noticed that he says, “The fact of the matter is..” frequently. It made me laugh and reminded me of Pat and since he learned English from her it made sense.
posted by Linda on 4-21-2007 at 9:28 pm
One that is not necessarily a “filler,” but it is annoying is, “to make a long story short…” Which I have noticed tends to come at the end of a long story, and does not make it shorter!!
posted by greenstrawberries on 4-23-2007 at 4:28 am
you know, like, i was just saying to my friend that we should totally like subscribe to this awesome world wide web site that is like, literally the bomb. Basically, in a nutshell, the whole, um, site is dedicated to the mind and stuff like that.sooo…like i said before…
Damn… and we are the educated ones here. does anyone else find themselves speaking a little slower and thinking our words through after reading these posts?!?!?!
posted by rico on 4-23-2007 at 8:15 am
I use ‘uh’ a lot. So much that it isn’t uncommon for me to say ‘uh’ and promptly forget what I was going to say. My husband will say, “Was that an ‘uh’ I forgot what I was going to say or an ‘uh’ I don’t have anything to say? Or did I interrupt your ‘uh’ too soon?
Yes. He’s annoyed and I’m annoyed at his annoyance. But it’s become a funny exchange. Come to think of it, I do this most often in the grocery store. I hate grocery shopping. Maybe that’s the problem.
I know someone who sticks, ‘it’s all good’ at the end of every sentence. Even if it obviously ISN’T good at ALL.
posted by Kathy on 4-23-2007 at 10:14 am
The corollary to the ‘do you understand’ one is something I hear from a lot of my younger friends. Once I’ve made a statement that resonates with them they state, usually in a very enthusiastic voice, ‘you don’t understand!’ Which, since they’re obviously agreeing with me always makes me go hmmmm (in my head).
As a northerner I have to admit to using the ‘eh’ sentence ender. I never believed in the stereotype but the first time I went to the states I kept having people ask if I was from Canada. How embarrassing.
posted by Bob on 4-23-2007 at 10:46 am
I know someone who says “Let me ask you a question” each time he is about to ask me (or anyone) something. Annoying. He is also a big fan of saying “What I’m saying is this…” before he says anything.
posted by Stephanie on 4-23-2007 at 12:39 pm
My boss always says “from my perspective…” at least once during every conversation. It could be a good drinking game. I also get annoyed with athletes doing interviews that insert “y’know” every third word.
posted by Greg A. on 4-24-2007 at 6:37 am
So far, not much attention has been paid to nominating new words.
Our family has taken some new fillers from beloved movies. All of us (husband, two sons, and I) will end conversations with, “Right then, we’ll call it a draw!” from MP’s Holy Grail. My husband and I will also insert “meow” wrecklessly into sentences in homage to Super Troopers.
We also delight in butchering certain words (phone, bump…)a la Clouseau, but that really doesn’t fit the filler catagory.
“Do what?” is the filler/killer phrase that annoys me most. People use it in place of “pardon me? I didn’t understand you” or “dude! I was like (pause) totally spacing just then and I heard your voice, but it was literally coming out of that wall-thing over there, but the words were actually in Dutch or Korean or something. So whadid you say?”
posted by elizabutt on 4-25-2007 at 8:54 am
I would have to say that a phrase that makes my skin crawl and teeth squeak is “my bad”. I want to shout “Your bad what?!”
My daughter uses like in every sentence and my husband and I have started pointing this out to her. Another thing that she, and most other people, does is to substitute the first person “I” with “you” when talking, as in “I hate it when I have to, like, go to the bathroom, and like, you can’t get there quickly enough, like, and you almost pee your pants.” AAWWWW My jangled nerves! The other filler word that a lot my Spanish speaking students use is “barely”. They will tell me, “Well, I was just barely at the swings and he barely was talking to me and so like, I was in trouble because the bell rang and like I was barely in line but then the teacher like yelled at me.” What to do?!
posted by Lisa on 4-25-2007 at 11:21 am
Another new filler word: soaking
My friend’s six-year-old son uses “soaking” as a filler word for empahsis. He’ll say, “It’s soaking cold outside” or “Can I have more noodles? I’m soaking hungry.” It flows nicely, I think.
posted by elizabutt on 4-25-2007 at 12:03 pm
@ 22.Shan
Everytime someone starts a sentence with “You know….,” I’m quick to respond with “No I don’t but I’m sure you are about to tell me.” Shuts them up quick :-)
posted by Knde on 4-26-2007 at 8:21 am
my pet peeve is the current usage of the phrase “at this point in time”. When did “in time” get added, and isn’t it redundant?
posted by Barbara on 4-26-2007 at 10:46 am
I hate the phrase “My bad” when it’s used as an apology. I don’t think I am emphasize enough how much I hate it.
Also, in the office in which I work, there seem to be a group of people who all missed the grammar lesson in school one day. “I seen it.” What is that phrase? And why won’t it go away? This statements makes me want to stab people in the eyes with sporks covered in hot sauce.
posted by Amber on 5-1-2007 at 8:47 am
I see a lot of my pet peeves here!
What about “with all due respect” and “I don’t mean that in a bad way”? I heard a comedian once complain about how people think they can say anything they want as long as long as they sandwich it between these two phrases. His example: “with all due respect, your sister’s a slut; but I don’t mean that in a bad way!”
posted by Karen on 5-1-2007 at 11:57 am
Here in south Texas, people use “barely” way too much. i.e. “I just barely got this car” to which I asked “as in within the last hour?” to which he responded, “no, like barely 6 months ago.” Thus, I had to explain to this person that barely does not extend beyond a day or so.
posted by Carlos on 5-16-2007 at 1:57 pm
I’m surprised I didn’t see this one in the 67 posts above mine: “anyway.” Maybe it’s an Upper-Midwest thing?
There is the don’t-miss-a-beat variety: “So anyway we went to the mall and I got this really cool sweater, but anyway it was rainy, and I didn’t have an unbrella. Then anyway we got icecream, so…anyway.”
Or there is also the big obnoxius transitional/end of converstaion version: “well, EEEEHnywaaay.”
Anyone else notice this? Well, anyway…
posted by Jessa on 6-27-2007 at 8:40 am
using the phrase “not gonna lie” after every sentence bugs me…not gonna lie…
posted by laurel on 7-9-2007 at 7:02 pm
I’m guilty of using a lot of the fillers highlighted above but basically, the newest one is(you guessed right)basically.I tried to get my boyfriend to stop me,but he only succeeded in influencing me - so, basically,the thing is I’ve got more fillers than I know what to do anything with, you get?
I’m only 18 so I guess I’ve got a lot of time to drop the habit.
posted by icemaiden on 12-15-2007 at 6:21 pm
fillers are a part of every language, and even though they can be annoying when over-used, they DO play an important role in communication… so THANK YOU, to all posters before me, for giving me a useful list of fillers to help my ESL students practice sounding more natural!
posted by Jen on 5-28-2008 at 2:32 pm