как бы (kak by)

What it means

1. 1.

   Sort of; kind of. A hedge that softens whatever follows, and in heavy users a tic attached to every second phrase.

2. 2.

   Distinct from типа in flavour: как бы is the hedge of the educated and the anxious, типа of the young and the casual. The two are often stacked together, как бы типа.

Literally: as if

Examples with translations

• Я как бы не против, но...

  I'm sort of fine with it, but...

• Мы как бы уже договорились.

  We had, more or less, already agreed.

Where it comes from

A genuine comparative conjunction ('as if') that lost its meaning through overuse in the perestroika years. Its spread was noticed and complained about at the time, making it one of the better-documented filler careers in Russian.

First attested: widespread from the late 1980s

Other forms

Romanised as:

kak by