I was like.

[Grablevskij]

The injury came at a bad time, just when Craig was making a name for himself at Villa. He first really caught the eye when the Villa lads reached the final of the FA Youth Cup against Middlesbrough. Both legs of the final were shown live on TV, and although Villa lost, Craig said, 'It was brilliant. A big crowd and everything. Brilliant. I was like, this is what I want to do!' The following season Craig was given several games in the reserves. It was a big step up, and meant playing with and against some famous players. He earned himself some good reviews. And then the injury happened.
'The coaches told me that a few years ago a knee injury like that would have ended my career,' he said, puffing out his cheeks and
blowing out a big sigh just thinking about it. 'But now a club like Villa makes sure you get the best doctors and the best treatment, and they told me I would get over it. And I did.' The injury happened in February. It was not until just before the end of the season, in May, that Craig returned to the reserve team. 'The first few times I played, after working my way back to fitness, were a bit scary. I was like, will it hurt? Will it be OK? Will I be able to tackle or take a kick on it? But it held up so I just got on with it.'


I've never come across this. Such using of 'like' is strange for me. Is in correct? And what is the grammar like here?

Michael

 

[riverkid]

The injury came at a bad time, just when Craig was making a name for himself at Villa. He first really caught the eye when the Villa lads reached the final of the FA Youth Cup against Middlesbrough. Both legs of the final were shown live on TV, and although Villa lost, Craig said, 'It was brilliant. A big crowd and everything. Brilliant. I was like, this is what I want to do!' The following season Craig was given several games in the reserves. It was a big step up, and meant playing with and against some famous players. He earned himself some good reviews. And then the injury happened.
'The coaches told me that a few years ago a knee injury like that would have ended my career,' he said, puffing out his cheeks and
blowing out a big sigh just thinking about it. 'But now a club like Villa makes sure you get the best doctors and the best treatment, and they told me I would get over it. And I did.' The injury happened in February. It was not until just before the end of the season, in May, that Craig returned to the reserve team. 'The first few times I played, after working my way back to fitness, were a bit scary. I was like, will it hurt? Will it be OK? Will I be able to tackle or take a kick on it? But it held up so I just got on with it.'


I've never come across this. Such using of 'like' is strange for me. Is in correct? And what is the grammar like here?

Michael

Good afternoon, evening or morning depending on where you are or when you read this, Michael.

You've obviously never been around young native speakers. They can stick in 'like', like almost every, like, other word. A wee bit of exaggeration but it is really common among the younger set.

These are speech dysfluencies. They're used as a placeholder, and are similar to errrrrmmm, mmmmmm, sooooooo, weeeelllll, aaaahhhhh,

See the article,

Speech disfluency - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also,

The Use of like as a Marker of Reported Speech and Thought: A Case of Grammaticalization in Progress
Suzanne Romaine, Deborah Lange
American Speech, Vol. 66, No. 3 (Autumn, 1991), pp. 227-279
doi:10.2307/455799
This article consists of 53 page(s).

but you can only read one page.

 

[Grablevskij]

Thank you.

Michael

 

[riverkid]

I forgot the link. Sorry.


The Use of like as a Marker of Reported Speech and Thought: A Case of Grammaticalization in Progress
Suzanne Romaine, Deborah Lange

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-1283(199123)66:3<227:TUOLAA>2.0.CO;2-J

 

[PINKGREAT]

Please, correct me, but I have my special two cents like:

'Like' in 'I was like' is an expletive and too colloquial form to my taste.

See another example: 'It was like five o'clock.'

'I was like' can be translated like: 'I said'

 

[Grablevskij]

Thank you.

Michael