How to stop using filler words

Why filler words happen

When you speak without a script, you plan the next sentence while you are still finishing the current one. Sometimes the plan is not ready in time, and a filler word holds your place while it catches up. In a study of everyday conversation, the psychologists Herbert Clark and Jean Fox Tree found that speakers use filler words to signal that a pause is coming, and that different fillers tend to come before shorter or longer delays (Cognition, 2002).

That is why filler words bunch up in the same places: at the start of an answer, between one point and the next, and right after a question you did not expect. They mean you are thinking, which is fine. The trouble starts when they turn into a habit you reach for even when you know exactly what comes next.

Two kinds of filler words

Some filler words are pure sound with no meaning at all. Others are real words doing a filler's job: "so" at the start of every sentence, "like" dropped into the middle of one, "you know", "basically", or "right?" tacked onto the end. The second kind is harder to catch, because in another sentence the same word does honest work. "So" can mean "therefore", and "like" can make a comparison.

Do filler words matter?

A few filler words in a long talk are normal, and most listeners will not notice them. A steady stream is different. It slows your point down, it can make you sound less sure of what you are saying, and on a recording it gets hard to hear past.

So aim for fewer, not zero. People who try to remove every filler word at once tend to end up speaking slowly and stiffly, which is its own problem.

Count yours first

You cannot hear your own filler words while you talk, because your attention is on what you are saying. So record yourself and count them afterward.

1. Record two or three minutes of the kind of speaking you actually do: an interview answer, a work update, the talk you are preparing. Reading a script aloud will not tell you much, because the words are already planned.
2. Play it back, or read the transcript, and count every filler word.
3. Divide by the number of minutes. Filler words a minute is the number to track, since a ten-minute talk will always have more in total than a two-minute one.
4. Note where they cluster. Most people find theirs bunched around transitions.

Write the number down. You will want it in a week.

Six ways to use fewer filler words

1. Pause instead

A filler word is a pause with a sound in it. Take the sound out and you are left with a pause, which comes across as calm rather than unsure. Practice it on purpose: when you feel a filler word coming, close your mouth, breathe, and then start the next sentence. A second of silence feels long to you and perfectly normal to everyone listening.

2. Slow down a little

When you talk faster than you can plan, filler words fill the gap. Slowing down by even a few words a minute gives the next sentence time to arrive. Our guide to speaking pace covers how to do that without sounding stiff.

3. Plan your transitions

Since most filler words land between points, decide exactly how you will move from one to the next. You do not need to memorize the whole talk, only the first few words of each section: "The second problem is cost." "Here is what we changed." A transition you have said out loud ten times does not need a filler word in front of it.

4. Know your first and last lines cold

Nerves tend to be worst in the first minute, and endings are where people trail off into "so, yeah". Learn your first two sentences and your last one well enough to say them without thinking. A clean start also sets your rhythm for everything after it.

5. Use shorter sentences

A long sentence makes you plan more while you speak, and that planning is what produces filler words. Say one idea, stop, then say the next. Short sentences are easier for your audience to follow, too.

6. Work on one filler word at a time

Most people lean on one or two favorites. Find yours, and for a week listen only for that one. Catching a single habit is far easier than trying to police every word you say.

A week of practice

Here is a simple way to put the six together.

• Day 1: record a two-minute answer or talk. Note your filler words a minute and where they cluster.
• Days 2 to 6: record the same piece once a day, working on one technique each day. Start with pausing.
• Day 7: record it again and compare the number with day one.

Keep the piece the same all week, so the only thing changing is you. Once the number moves, switch to a new topic and check that it holds.

How PitchCoach AI helps

PitchCoach AI does the counting for you. Record in your browser or upload a recording, and about a minute later your report shows:

• your filler words a minute in Delivery Vitals, counted from the timing of every word in your audio,
• the filler words the AI found in your transcript, including words that are only filler in context, like a "so" that starts every sentence,
• your Top Improvements, each with a Try this for your next run.

Press Record it again to try the same talk straight away, and the new report puts the two takes side by side. Every report also compares your scores with your own average, so you can see whether a habit is fading.

Source: Herbert H. Clark and Jean E. Fox Tree, Cognition 84 (2002), pages 73 to 111.