It’s happening again. I tried my best to, you know, kick the habit. I mean, I kept constant vigil to monitor myself and resist temptation. But I’m failing.
Of course, I’m talking about the habit of throwing you know and I mean into my everyday language. I mean, I did well for a year or so, but now I’m not doing so hot.
Being weird, I noticed that a lot of my friends were saying you know in the middle of their sentences. Like they were using it for the split-second that it allows you to decide what word you want to say next.
- Cool Mum, I guess I feel, you know, weird about naming our baby ‘The Edge’.
- Oh, don’t mind him. The boy’s just about to, you know, chomp down on your big toe.
- Cool Dad, that cap is, you know, memorable.
After a while, I noticed that I’d caught the disease and that I was depending on you know, so I consciously made an effort to stop. And it worked!
…until I recently noticed myself fooling around with another phrase: I mean. This is a half-brother-in-law of you know in that it buys me a split-second before a whole sentence. But to worsen matters, I may not even need that extra time, but I say it anyway!
- I mean, I think ‘The Edge’ is great, too, but it may hamper his ability to find employment or meaningful friendships.
- I mean, the ER is just right around the corner. Oh, will you drive?
- I mean, you said you liked the cap and I figured you’d love three for Christmas.
The situation is getting dire. Not only am I-meaning it, but I’ve also gone back to you-knowing again, too! What’s next, adding bra (as in the weird way to say ‘bro’) at the end of sentences??
- I mean, I think I’d be an excellent choice to, you know, preach this weekend, bra!
So, now I’m watching myself for two phrases. If you talk to me and I take 27.2 seconds to formulate a response, you’ll know why. I have to do this. If not, I fear for the boy as he starts to talk.
- mumma i u know love you
That would not be cool, bra.
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not sure why, but your example sentences sound like they have a Canadian accent in my head.
kinda weird.
Not really sure I put those types of things in my speech. I think my problem is forgetting the names of simple things like ‘spoon’ or ‘book’. its almost as if the word is missing from my brain but i can see a picture of it.
Ah I have the same problem with ‘I mean’. And also with:
- like [typical girl]
- …and stuff
- …or something
- …or whatever
now that I’ve entered the wonderful world of blogging…I’ve noticed that I start most of my sentences w/ “yeah”, “so” and “well”…
I’m guessing half of my sentences are conclusive sentences then, yes?
[p.s. I learned about me when being introduced to live chat again...rock on post-AOL chatters, rock on]
I definitely have this problem.
-I mean
-you know
-i feel like
I heard once that people do this right before they are about to make some kind of definitive statement, and that’s definitely true of me.
I especially do this when I’m joining in on the discussions in my class…as if when I add “I feel like” to the sentence, it’s okay if I’m wrong haha.
I should work on this.
randy – that’s funny, eh?
raq – guilty of “or whatever” as well!
cathi – i often type ‘so’ or ‘well’ to begin my sentences and go back and delete them. so, well.
lindsey – this is a great post talking about adding disclaimers like that to what you say.
it’s different from what i’m saying because to me, ‘i mean’ and ‘you know’ are mainly harmless bad habits (like saying ‘man’ a lot), not like making disclaimers that lessen the significance or accountability of what you say.
does that make sense?
you are funny. yes. you are.
um.
i say um a lot.
i didn’t notice it until i did that video response to mandy. i offended myself hearing it so much!
it sounds so. um. unedumacated.
Hopefully our failings will teach our kids the value of an edumacation.