English Filler Words: What to Do Instead of Um and Like

Fillers are the sounds and words you put in a sentence while you decide the next part. "Um." "Uh." "Like." "You know." "So..." Native speakers use them too. Learners often use more of them, and they use them because two jobs are happening at once: choosing the idea, and choosing the English. The noise is the engine idling. You do not need to delete every filler. You need a pause you can stand, and a short list of fillers that have started to replace your sentences.

Hear the one that actually bothers people

Record one minute about your day. Play it back once. Count. Do not count every breath. Count the filler that repeats so often a listener could imitate you.

Most people have one main filler, not five. Maybe it is "um" before every clause. Maybe it is "like" inside the clause. Maybe it is "so" at the start of every answer, including answers that are not conclusions. Work on that one. A campaign against all fillers makes you monitor yourself instead of talking, and the monitoring creates more pauses, and the pauses fill with new noise.

Write the count down. "Tuesday: like, 14 times in 60 seconds." You need a number or you will feel you are "always" doing it, which is too vague to change.

What to put in the gap

The useful replacement is silence. A short silence. People trust a quiet half-second more than they trust "um um um," because silence sounds like thinking. Noise sounds like struggling, even when you are only choosing a preposition.

Practice this on purpose:

1. Ask yourself a question. "What did you do yesterday?"
2. When you do not know the next word, close your mouth.
3. Take the time of one breath.
4. Start the clause again from the last clear word, not from the filler.

I went to the... [breath] ...to the office, and then I left early.

The second "to the" is allowed. Restarting a phrase is normal speech. Filling the restart with "like, you know, basically" is what you are retiring.

A few words are better than "um" if you truly need to hold the turn so nobody interrupts:

• Let me think.
• What's the word.
• Sorry, one second.

Use one of them, then be quiet. Do not stack them. "Let me think, um, you know" is the old habit wearing a new hat.

"Like" and "you know" are different from "um"

"Um" is mostly noise. "Like" and "you know" sometimes do work, and sometimes they are noise.

"Like" is doing work when it means "for example" or "approximately." "It takes like an hour" means the hour is not exact. You can keep a few of those. "Like" is noise when it sits in front of every noun. "I was like talking to my like manager." That one is worth cutting, because it makes the nouns harder to hear.

"You know" asks the listener to agree that this is obvious. If they do not know, the phrase is lonely. Replace it with the fact. Not "it's, you know, complicated." Say "there are three teams, and they do not share a list."

"So" at the start is a habit of people who want to sound organized. It is fine once, when you are concluding. It is a filler when every answer begins with it, including "So, yes."

A drill that lasts a week

Five minutes. Same question each day, so you are not also inventing a topic.

1. Record forty seconds.
2. Count the main filler.
3. Record again. The only goal is a smaller number. The story can be worse. You are allowed to speak more slowly.
4. Stop. Do not record a third time or you will perform.

If Friday's number is lower, keep the drill once a week so it does not creep back. If it is the same, you are still building the sentence in your first language during the gap. Shorten the idea. How to think in English is the other half of this problem. Fillers and translation are partners.

Natural pace is not the same as zero fillers. How to sound more natural in English will push you back toward contractions and short answers after this week, so you do not become stiff.

In a real conversation

Tell yourself one rule before the conversation, not ten. "Mouth closed when I search." You will forget it. Remembering it twice in ten minutes is a success. Afterward, if you recorded, count once. If you did not, notice only whether a person had to lean in because the fillers ate the nouns.

A scene with another voice makes the rule harder, which is the point after day three of talking to yourself. A call where you explain your day, or small talk, will offer you places to say "um." Use the breath there. Do not apologize for your English in the same gap. An apology is a long filler. The sentence you were building is more interesting.

More guides

• Common mistakes when speaking English
• How to sound more natural in English
• How to give a short update in English

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