The Grammar Gestapo

The misuse of the word "like" has gotten completely out of hand.

Like has been under assault for decades. Back in the 1950's, "Beatniks" would say "like, yeah, man" using the word as a sort of cult placeholder for hip speech. In the last 10 years, people have begun using it in a slightly different way. 

You often hear the phrase "I felt like...." when what they mean to say is "I felt that...." 

You will also hear the phrase used when the speaker wants to inject a degree of qualification, even going so far as to say "I felt like that it was...."  

To be like is to indicate a comparison between one thing and another; it isn't a qualifier which can be used to modify a verb. You can "feel like" someone else, or you can "feel like" (technically a stretch--replacing as if with like) you're becoming ill. But you can't "feel like" you think or do something; that's not English.

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