Casual “Like” For Informal English

I was like, so tired last night, I fell asleep in my clothes!

I worked a lot last week. I think I was in the office like, 65 hours all together. So when I got home last night I was like, so tired. I feel asleep on the sofa with my clothes on. When I woke up it was like, 5:00 am. My roommate was up as well. He was like, “Why are you up so early?” I explained my situation.

Like is used in a variety of ways in casual, English conversation. Today, I’d like to show you a few examples of how we use like in this way. Have a look at the paragraph above, and then check out this English lesson.

We use like to mean “about.” This like is usually followed by a brief pause.

• I think the boss is like, 65 years old.
• It’s like, fifty minutes from NYC to Boston by plane.
• What a fat dog! It must weight like, 30 pounds!

We also use like before a little, so, or too (etc) + adjective to emphasize and draw the listener’s attention to the adjective. This like is also usually followed by a brief pause.

• I was like, so tired last night that I fell asleep with my clothes on.
• Don’t you think the boss is like, too strict with us when we come in late?
• Is Tom ok? He seems like, a little quite today.

In a similar way, we use like before a verb to draw the listener’s attention to the verb. This like is also usually followed by a brief pause.

• Don’t you like, love the pizza here! It’s so good.
• I’m tired. I think I am gonna like, go home and take a nap before dinner.
• The new salesman in the company like, talks too much.

Lastly, we use was like to mean said or asked when we tell someone about a conversation we had and we want to quote that conversation. Take a look at the following conversation:

I saw Jack yesterday, and it looked like he was in a hurry.

• Me: “Where are you going?”
• Jack: “I’m late for work.”
• Me: “What happened?”
• Jack: “I overslept.”
• Me: “Good luck!”

Using reported speech, we can discuss this conversation like this:

I saw Jack yesterday, and it looked like he was in a hurry. I asked him where he was going. He said he was late for work. So when I asked him what happened, he said that he overslept. I said good luck.

Typically, in spoken English, we use the phrase was like followed by the exact words from the conversation or pretty close to the exact words:

I saw Jack yesterday, and it looked like he was in a hurry. I was like, “Where are you going?” He was like, “I’m late for work.” So I was like, “What happened?” and he was like, “I overslept.” So, I was like“good luck!”

Keep in mind that we use was like in informal, spoken English but never in written English.