English Filler Words

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When you listen to English speakers talk, you might notice that we say a lot of filler words between our words, phrases, and sentences. Filler words are words or phrases that don't really mean anything, and all languages have them. Let me give you some reasons why we say them, and then I'll teach you some of the most common filler words in English. One reason why we say them is that it helps us fill in the silence while we're still thinking about what we're gonna say. Many people think that when a speaker goes silent, it means that they're done talking and they're waiting for you to talk. So the speaker might use a filler word to show that they're still talking and that you should wait for them to finish their thought. Another reason why people use filler words when they're talking is because they're not very confident or comfortable with what they're talking about. Perhaps it's hard for the speaker to confidently express their thoughts about a certain subject, and so they use a lot of filler words because their ideas are very disconnected or the speaker can't finish their thoughts effectively, so they interrupt their sentences with filler words and then start new sentences. And one other reason why people might use filler words is simply because of habit.