Picture this: you’re in a job interview, the stakes are high, and the hiring manager asks a tough question. You take a breath and begin, “Well, um, I think the best approach would be to, uh, first analyze the data…” Internally, you cringe. Those little “ums” and “uhs” sound like blaring signals of incompetence, tiny cracks in your carefully constructed professional facade.

For decades, public speaking coaches, communication experts, and well-meaning managers have waged a war on these verbal hiccups. Filler words, we’re told, make us sound uncertain, unprepared, and unpolished. But what if this common wisdom is, well, wrong? What if words like “um”, “uh”, and “like” aren’t just lazy speech habits, but essential cogs in the complex machinery of human communication?

The Public Perception: A Sign of Weakness?

Let’s not dismiss the conventional view entirely. There’s a reason filler words get a bad rap. In a prepared oration or a formal presentation, an excessive number of “ums” can indeed be distracting. They can break the flow of a carefully crafted message and, to a listener, might suggest a lack of preparation or confidence. The advice to minimize them in these highly formal contexts isn’t without merit.

The problem arises when we extrapolate this advice to all forms of speech. Spontaneous, everyday conversation is a different beast entirely. It’s messy, unpredictable, and cognitively demanding. Vilifying a natural feature of spontaneous speech is like criticizing a driver for slowing down on a sharp, unexpected curve. The slowdown isn’t a flaw; it’s a necessary adjustment to a complex situation.

Unpacking the “Um”: What Are Filler Words, Linguistically?

In linguistics, these words have a more formal name: hesitation markers or filled pauses. They are a type of discourse marker—a word or phrase that doesn’t add to the semantic content of a sentence but manages its flow and structure. They come in many forms:

• Simple Pauses: The classic um (often used for a longer, more thoughtful pause) and uh (for a shorter hesitation).
• Discourse Fillers: Phrases like you know, I mean, so, and the much-maligned like.

Far from being meaningless noise, these markers are doing important work behind the scenes. They are signals, both to ourselves and to our conversation partners, that something is happening under the hood.

The Brain on “Um”: Managing Cognitive Load

Speaking is one of the most complex things your brain does. You have to conceptualize an idea, search your mental lexicon for the right words, assemble them into a grammatically correct sentence, and control the motor functions of your mouth and vocal cords—often all within a fraction of a second.

This is where filler words become a cognitive lifesaver. They act as a verbal placeholder, a sort of “loading…” icon for your brain. When you say “um”, you’re essentially telling your own brain, “Hold on, I need a moment to retrieve that specific word or formulate this complex thought.”

Research backs this up. Studies have shown that speakers are more likely to use fillers before using less common or more complex words. This suggests the speaker isn’t being lazy; they are actively engaged in a difficult mental search (lexical retrieval). In this light, “um” isn’t a sign of an empty mind, but a mind that’s working hard to find the most precise language. It’s the sound of thought in progress.

The Social Dance: Turn-Taking and Holding the Floor

Conversation isn’t a monologue; it’s a duet, a delicate dance of give and take. One of the most critical, unspoken rules of this dance is turn-taking. How do we know when someone is finished speaking and it’s our turn to jump in? The primary cue is a pause.

This is where the distinction between a silent pause and a filled pause becomes crucial.

• A silent pause often acts as a full stop. It signals to your conversation partner, “My thought is complete. The floor is now yours.”

– A filled pause (like “um” or “uh”) does the exact opposite. It’s a conversational ‘place-holder’. It signals, “I’m not finished speaking yet, I’m just planning my next move. Please don’t interrupt me.”

By using a filler, you’re staking your claim on the conversational floor. It’s a polite, subconscious way of preventing interruptions and maintaining the flow of your own thought process. It’s a surprisingly sophisticated tool for managing the social dynamics of a conversation.

“Like”, Are They All the Same? A Cross-Linguistic Look

If filler words were simply a flaw of lazy English speakers, we wouldn’t expect to see them in other languages. But they are a universal feature of human speech. While the specific sounds may differ, their function remains remarkably consistent across cultures.

• In Japanese, you’ll hear ええと (eeto) and あの (ano).
• In French, speakers often use euh.
• In Spanish, este (“this”) or pues (“well”) can serve as fillers.
• In German, ähm is the equivalent of the English “um.”

This universality is powerful evidence that fillers are not a bug, but a feature of spoken language. They are a natural solution to the universal cognitive and social challenges of spontaneous conversation.

The word “like” deserves a special mention. While it’s often used as a simple hesitation marker, it has also evolved into a multi-purpose tool in modern English. It can act as a quotative (“She was like, ‘I can’t believe it'”), an approximator (“It was, like, 30 degrees out”), or a hedge to soften a statement. Its versatility is a testament to how language constantly evolves to meet new communicative needs.

So, What’s the Verdict?

Are filler words a flaw? The answer, like language itself, is nuanced. In a high-stakes, prepared speech, overusing them can detract from your message. Awareness and practice can help you rely on them less in these specific scenarios.

But in the vast majority of our daily interactions, filler words are not a weakness. They are a sign of a brain hard at work, a tool for managing complex thoughts, and a subtle social cue for navigating the intricate dance of conversation. They are a natural, functional, and fascinating part of what makes human language so dynamic.

So the next time you hear someone—or yourself—use an “um” or an “uh”, resist the urge to judge. Instead, take a moment to appreciate the incredible cognitive and social work that little word is doing. It’s not a flaw; it’s the sound of a human mind in action.