Path command

[Stephen]

It seems like my path variable in Ubuntu 12.04 got corrupted some how. 
Programs that I used to start in a terminal are saying path not found or 
/dir/dir/dir/ is not in the path

When I type path in the terminal it says path not found. I thought it 
was like dos and when you typed a variable in the terminal it told you 
what the setting for that variable is.

Is there some way I can restore the path variable?

Thanks in advance.

Stephen