2022.09.29 – 0637 – Umm, Err, Well, Kinda
Filler words
It’s easy for your ad-libs, conversations and questions to be littered with verbal crutches (properly called ‘disfluencies’):
· Sounds - such as “err”, “OK”, “umm”
· Words and phrases - “y’know”, “I mean”, “you know what I mean”, “kind of thing”, “actually”, “basically”, “literally”, “right”, “sort of”, “so”[1] and the like. And indeed, “like”. [2]
When Do We Use Filler Words?
We use fillers in different situations:
· “I’m looking for the right word or phrase” – you’re thinking as you are speaking and so searching for just the right word to use.
· “I’m being careful to explain this thought so I don’t offend” – and have several words to choose from and are weighing up the best one to use
· “I’m still holding this conversation; I’m not finished yet” [3] - a nervous speaker giving the impression of fluency, wanting to fill every silence with sound, any sound, perhaps when they are poorly prepared and trying desperately to think of what to say.[4]
[1] To hear more about the use of the word “so”, especially in starting a sentence, listen to this podcast: Spectacular Vernacular - Lexicon Valley #7: https://recastthis.com/source/335/
[2] Closely related to the ‘fillers’ are the ‘safe standby phrases’ which on the radio may be the same way you come out of an ad-sequence or the news, or the same way the travel news is introduced or a guest is thanked. Brainstorm a way to creatively re-work those verbal crutches and have them as part of your repertoire, even if they are on a written list that you work down day by day to always sound fresh and authentic.
[3] It’s also been suggested by some linguists that what comes after an “umm” is a more complex thought or sentence-structure than what comes after an “err”.
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