Pat T. O'Connor

I found Patricia T. O'Connor's article in today's International Herald Tribune. She was talking about the usages of the word "like." This article is very interesting to English learners, I belive.

Recently, Ms. O'Connor wrote a grammar book for kids, which seems to be useful for English learners in Japan. I remember learning about English grammar using a book for kids a couple of years ago. You don't have to feel humiliated. A person I know used to tell me that he had been really shocked to know that the English dictionary he was using was for middle schoolers in England. Even if your vocabulary in English is limite to that of middle schoolers, it doesn't mean you are not more intelligent than middle schoolers.



According to IHT (Monday, July 16, 2007):

This upstart like is the new say, nad users find it a handy tool for quoting or paraphrases the speech of others,...

For example, like can introduce an actual quotation ("She's like, 'What unusual shoes you're wearing!'") or paraphrase one ("She's like, my shoes are weird!").

Or it can summarize the inner thoughts of either the quoter or the quotee ("She's like, yeah, as if I'd be caught dead in them! And I'm like, I care what you think?").

Like even lets a speaker imitate the behavior of the person being quoted "She's like..." and the speaker smirks and rolls her eyes).

This like is not to be confused with the one that sticklers see as a meaningless verbal tic ("The band was, like, outrageous!")....