Learn English – it called when someone says “like” or “alright”

grammarterminology

I was talking with my friend and neither of us could think of the word for when someone says something similar to "And, like, we were totally, like, going to do this one thing."

To add to it, as requested, there are people that say things like "So, alright, this is what we're gonna' do, alright. First we need to (insert something here), alright."

Best Answer

They are known as filler words, and are often grouped into the same category as similarly used sounds such as "um" and "uh".

From _Wikipedia: Filler (linguistics)

In linguistics, a filler is a sound or word that is spoken in conversation by one participant to signal to others that he/she has paused to think but has not yet finished speaking. [...] Different languages have different characteristic filler sounds; in English, the most common filler sounds are uh, er, and um. Among youths, the fillers "like", "y'know", "I mean", "so", "actually", "basically", and "right" are among the more prevalent.

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