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Glite Dictionary
to be like

to be like

∞ 8.6
Show what someone says or thinks in informal speech
  • phrasal verb
  • /bi laɪk/
  • Informal
translation icon : decir
  • When I told her my plans, she was like, that's amazing!
  • be like 'Oh'

And I went and I was like, yeah, yeah.

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Examples

  • What I'm saying is, don't be like that.

    Absolution (2024)

  • And when I opened this up, I was like, it's blue.

  • And when I put this on, I was like wow, wow.

  • Why does everything have to be like that with you?

    The Wrath of Becky (2023)

  • The end of the year was like the last day of summer camp.

    Academic text (2012)

  • My first step was to find out more about what it was like to be blind.

    Academic text (2011)

  • What's weather supposed to be like tomorrow, sir?

    Paths of Glory (1957)

  • Anna, tell me, what is it like to be sixteen?

    #No_Filter (2022)

  • And I've always thought of life to be like a two phase thing.

  • You don't know what it's like up there.

    Of Things Past (2023)

Synonyms

to say
vsto be like
∞ 3.0

Imagine something to use as an example in a discussion

is used mainly to introduce reported speech or thought in casual dialogue
like
vsto be like
  • UK
1 7.0

A word people use in speech to show what someone said or thought

is used specifically to introduce reported speech in casual storytelling

Surface Forms

be like infinitive
was like past
been like past participle
being like present participle
is like third person singular

Morphology

be + like

The colloquial quotative 'be like' does have a loose connection to its parts—'be' (a state) plus 'like' (a marker of similarity or reported speech)—so learners may sense it introduces a reported thought or utterance. However, its grammaticalized, pragmatic quotative and approximative uses (informal reporting, stance-taking) are not strictly derivable from the constituents and are language- and register-specific, making it only partially predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

The phrase be like comes from a simple image: when you tell a story you stand in the other person's place and copy their words, so you be like them as you repeat what they said. That's why people use be like 'to introduce what someone says or thinks'.