Is 'I mean' the new 'like'?

Whererainfalls · 2020-10-16T14:41:18+00:00

Has anyone else noticed this trend for starting sentences with ' I mean...' when the sentence is not serving as a clarification of something that's been said previously? I mean if you're saying it, I hope that you mean it, otherwise why bother saying it? I mean, it's fucking annoying, stop it. I mean it's even worse if you go to the bother of typing it. I mean it's completely redundant in most cases. I mean, yes, i have turned into my mother, like. [grin]

Andylion · 16/10/2020 15:47

It drives me crazy, OP, but aside from you, I have never heard anyone else find it irritating. How can they not hear it?

TheRonettes · 16/10/2020 15:51

It's the turning around that used to annoy me, but I think that may be lessening these days. Eg 'So I turned around and I said to her 'You keep your hands off my Gary' when the slaag who's getting her talons into hapless Gary isn't actually standing behind the OP in the queue for the chipper ...

Original poster

Whererainfalls · 16/10/2020 16:04

Oh yeah, people turning around all the time is also very annoying, but not quite as egregiously redundant as 'I mean'.

I've just finished watching Selling Sunset (I know, I know) and they all say it all the time, but I've noticed it here now too. I've seen people writing it here! It adds nothing to your sentence except to make you sound like an American reality-show wannabe.

OP posts:

SingingSands · 16/10/2020 16:04

I have a colleague who uses that a lot. Sometimes I can feel my jaw twitching when she's been talking a lot.

I'm still trying to get my 12 yr old to stop beginning every sentence with "basically".

Leaannb · 16/10/2020 16:14

@Whererainfalls

Oh yeah, people turning around all the time is also very annoying, but not quite as egregiously redundant as 'I mean'.

I've just finished watching Selling Sunset (I know, I know) and they all say it all the time, but I've noticed it here now too. I've seen people writing it here! It adds nothing to your sentence except to make you sound like an American reality-show wannabe.

Thats jist how we talk. No reality show needed..I'm forever saying "I mean, really"

Original poster

Whererainfalls · 16/10/2020 18:07

"I mean, really" is a different expression though, Leannb. At least it is when i use it - it implies disbelief or disapproval, or something.

"I mean...." in the way I'm talking about here is just filler that doesn't actually mean anything. As in the way that we all used 'like' in the nineties like. Like, you know, like.

OP posts:

DoTheNextRightThing · 16/10/2020 18:10

I mean... yes, I do it all the time. I don’t even know WHY I do it. But I started it a while back and now I can't stop lol.

Original poster

Whererainfalls · 16/10/2020 18:16

@DoTheNextRightThing

I mean... yes, I do it all the time. I don’t even know WHY I do it. But I started it a while back and now I can't stop lol.

I mean I understand why you do it. I mean, everyone is. I mean, personally I just find it, I mean...I can't even.

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TheSeedsOfADream · 16/10/2020 18:18

I've never heard it at the beginning of an utterance, but it's a very common filler in spoken discourse in the middle. Most languages have their variation of it.

gamerchick · 16/10/2020 18:23

@TheRonettes

It's the turning around that used to annoy me, but I think that may be lessening these days. Eg 'So I turned around and I said to her 'You keep your hands off my Gary' when the slaag who's getting her talons into hapless Gary isn't actually standing behind the OP in the queue for the chipper ...

Aye but that came from somewhere during one of the past plagues to reduce transmission. Give it time and we'll be doing it again to talk to people.

gamerchick · 16/10/2020 18:25

..I can't even

Now that one gets right on my tit ends. You can't even what?!!

Isitsixoclockalready · 16/10/2020 18:26

We need one of those ‘annoying phrases’ threads again - they are quite funny. I did find people starting sentences with: “So...” a bit annoying but it’s often something that you find yourself doing subconsciously after hearing it so often.

Bwlch · 16/10/2020 18:34

egregiously

/ɪˈɡriːdʒəsli/
Learn to pronounce
adverb
in an outstandingly bad way; shockingly.
"we've been misleading you most egregiously"

I mean, every day is a school day!

MalorieSnooty · 16/10/2020 18:36

@gamerchick I haven't heard 'right on my tit ends' since Vic Reeves' Big Night Out

IntentIntel · 16/10/2020 18:36

Basically, literally.

My DD now says "Did you actually?"

MalorieSnooty · 16/10/2020 18:37

The kids at school (Year 7s mainly) start every question with 'WAIT!...so'. I want to tell them it's rude but I don't even think they know they're doing it

gamerchick · 16/10/2020 19:11

[quote MalorieSnooty]@gamerchick I haven't heard 'right on my tit ends' since Vic Reeves' Big Night Out [/quote]
It's a favorite

Sorry OP I was being light-hearted in my last post, missed the smiley off the end.

I do wish people would end that sentence though

Original poster

Whererainfalls · 16/10/2020 19:30

@gamerchick

..I can't even

Now that one gets right on my tit ends. You can't even what?!!

Oh, I know, believe me! It's another one that gets right on my tits,

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Hendalle · 16/10/2020 19:42

“I/she/he/they turned around and...” really really cheeses me off and I don’t know why

Now it’s been mentioned here I realize that yes I have noticed an increase in the use of “I mean” as a sentence starter/filler..

I also feel the need to confess that I say “like” far far far too often and unnecessarily, and it’s something I’m battling! I say it less than I used to, but I have the creeping dread in the back of my mind that I’m adding “like” to sentences without noticing. I don’t even know where I picked it up or how it started, nor how I managed to leave my parents home doing it.. they were hot on shutting down any use of slang or swearing perhaps they took their hands of the wheel, so to speak, when it came to “like”

Original poster

Whererainfalls · 16/10/2020 19:51

*tits.

I do know to end a sentence with a full stop rather than a comma, I swear.

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gamerchick · 16/10/2020 19:54

@Whererainfalls

*tits.

I do know to end a sentence with a full stop rather than a comma, I swear.

I do say like loads as well, but I'm a geordie lass. It's ingrained.

DontTouchTheMoustache · 16/10/2020 19:55

I always catch myself saying "if you know what I mean" at the end of saying something. I hate it and try so hard not to but it just falls out of me.
I think its because I dont have much confidence so whenever I speak about anything for more than a few sentences I assume everyone thinks I'm babbling inanely

Grapefruitcauliflower · 16/10/2020 21:30

YANBU, although I’d gladly take a thousand “I mean”s over the following:

“Then I turned around and said...”
“Fast forward two weeks”
“Soooo...” at the start of sentences
Any sort of bollocks management speak (“lean in”, “thanks for reaching out“, “I don’t have the bandwidth” etc).

Just fucking speak normally!

PancakesAndSyrup · 16/10/2020 22:40

Can I also at "at the end of the day" to the list and "like". Like I mean at the end of the day I turned around and said to her