How to Stop Saying "Um" and "Uh" (Without Sounding Like a Robot)

Filler words aren't the problem. Using them constantly is. The average person says "um" or "uh" about five times per minute—and research shows that's actually fine. The problem starts when you cross roughly 1.3% of your total words. Beyond that threshold, listeners start rating you as less prepared, less credible, and less competent. Not because of what you said. Because of how you said it.

I used to be a chronic "um" person. Recorded myself on a work call once and counted 47 fillers in 10 minutes. Forty-seven. Nearly five per minute, which sounds manageable until you realize I was presenting quarterly results to executives. Half of them were probably playing filler-word bingo.

Here's what worked to cut that number by 80% in about six weeks. No acting classes. No expensive coaches. Just understanding why fillers happen and practicing a few specific techniques until they became automatic.

Why do we say "um" in the first place?

Your brain is working faster than your mouth can move. That's the core issue. Filler words are the buffer—they hold your place in the conversation while your brain catches up to decide what to say next.

Stanford linguist Herbert Clark found that "um" and "uh" aren't errors or verbal garbage. They're actually words your brain plans and produces deliberately. They serve as conversation managers—signals that tell your listener "I'm still talking, don't interrupt me, I'm just thinking for a second."

The interesting part: "um" and "uh" mean different things. Research suggests we say "um" when deciding what to say and "uh" when deciding how to say it. "Um" signals a longer delay coming. "Uh" signals a shorter one. Your brain actually distinguishes between them.

So fillers serve a purpose. They hold the conversational floor. They buy thinking time. They're not inherently bad—they become a problem when they're your only tool for managing pauses. When every gap gets filled with noise instead of silence, you start sounding uncertain. Even if you're not.

What happens when you use too many fillers?

Cal Poly researchers had participants listen to speakers with varying filler rates. The results were clear: speakers with more fillers were rated as less professional, less credible, and less competent. The actual content of their message didn't change—just the delivery.

Another study tested this more precisely. They varied filler rates from 0 to 12 per minute and measured perception. Five fillers per minute? No significant negative impact. Twelve per minute? Significant drops in perceived effectiveness. The sweet spot exists—it's just lower than most people realize.

Here's a number that stuck with me: recordings without filler words scored 5.93 on communication competence. Recordings with vocal fillers scored 3.99. Same speakers. Same content. The only difference was those little sounds between thoughts.

The business case is real too. One telemarketing study found success rates dropped sharply when filler use exceeded 1.3% of total words. That's roughly one filler per 77 words. Seems like plenty of room—until you realize how fast those stack up when you're nervous.

How do you actually reduce filler words?

Awareness comes first. You can't fix what you don't notice. Record yourself on your next call—most video conferencing tools save recordings—and count your fillers. The number will probably surprise you. It surprised me.

Studies show that students who received real-time feedback on filler usage reduced their fillers by three times compared to those who got no feedback. Even delayed feedback cut filler rates by 60%. Just knowing the problem exists makes a difference.

Technique 1: Replace fillers with pauses

This is the core skill. When you feel "um" rising, close your mouth instead. Just stop. Let the silence exist.

Sounds simple. Feels terrifying. The silence seems to stretch forever when you're the one waiting. But here's what the research actually shows: saying "um" makes speakers seem more anxious than leaving silence. Pauses read as thoughtful. Fillers read as nervous.

The technique: catch yourself right before the filler and substitute nothing. Literally nothing. Breathe if you need to, but don't vocalize. The pause feels like an eternity to you. To your listener, it's a confident speaker taking a moment to consider their words.

Practice this in low-stakes conversations. When someone asks you a question, pause for a full second before answering. Feel how uncomfortable that second is. Then speak. Do this enough times, and pauses become natural territory instead of void to flee.

Technique 2: Slow down your speaking pace

Fast speech creates filler opportunities. Your mouth is outrunning your brain, and fillers are the catch-up mechanism. When you slow down, you need fewer buffers.

The average speaking rate is about 135 words per minute. Nervous speakers often hit 170 or higher. At that pace, your brain is constantly scrambling to keep up, and "um" buys it a fraction of a second to think.

Try speaking at 70% of your normal speed. It'll feel ridiculously slow—almost patronizing. That's exactly where you want to be. Your brain finally has time to prepare the next phrase before your mouth needs it. The fillers evaporate because you don't need them anymore.

Technique 3: Chunk your thoughts

Most fillers happen between ideas. You finish one thought and fill the gap while searching for the next one. The fix: mentally organize your response into discrete chunks before speaking.

When someone asks you a question, don't start talking immediately. Take a beat. Identify the two or three points you want to make. Then deliver them one at a time, with intentional pauses between each.

This front-loads the thinking. Instead of searching for your next point while talking, you've already mapped the territory. The pauses between chunks aren't awkward scrambles—they're confident transitions.

Technique 4: Practice with a trigger word

Pick a word to mentally say instead of "um." Some people use "pause." Others use "breathe." The word itself doesn't matter. The point is creating a conscious interrupt for the automatic filler habit.

When you feel the filler impulse, silently think your trigger word. This breaks the automaticity. Your brain was going to produce "um" without conscious intervention. The trigger makes it conscious, which makes it controllable.

After a few weeks, you won't need the trigger anymore. The pause itself becomes automatic. But the trigger is useful training wheels.

Technique 5: Accept some fillers

Complete elimination isn't the goal. It's not even possible. And honestly? Speakers with zero fillers sound slightly robotic. The research shows that a low but nonzero rate—around five per minute—doesn't negatively affect perception.

Dr. Angela Corbo from Widener University puts it this way: "Filler words sometimes will serve that purpose for you. It indicates that that's the moment where you're inviting people to think."

The goal is reducing fillers from a distracting crutch to an occasional, natural pause marker. If you're at 15 per minute, get to 8. If you're at 8, get to 5. Don't obsess over perfection—aim for comfortable reduction.

Do filler words actually mean you're less intelligent?

No. If anything, the opposite might be true.

Research shows that more conscientious people actually use more filler words. That means the people who care most about what they're saying are the ones who pause to think. Fillers correlate with thoughtfulness, not stupidity.

Another study found something surprising about honesty: people telling the truth used more fillers. The "instances of um were significantly more frequent and longer acoustic duration during truth-telling than during lying." Liars apparently plan their speech more carefully because they're constructing a narrative. Truth-tellers are processing reality in real-time, which creates more hesitations.

Humanities professors use fillers at 4.76 times per hundred words. Hard science professors? Just 1.47 times. That's not because scientists are smarter—it's because humanities material is harder to put into words precisely, requiring more real-time verbal processing.

So fillers don't signal low intelligence. But perception doesn't care about reality. Listeners rate speakers with excessive fillers as less competent regardless of what's actually true. You're managing perception, not proving your IQ.

How long does it take to improve?

In my experience: two weeks to notice the problem, four weeks to start catching yourself, six weeks to see real reduction.

The research supports this timeline. Real-time feedback produces immediate improvement—three times fewer fillers. Deliberate practice over 4-8 weeks creates lasting change. The progression isn't linear. You'll have good days and backslide days. That's normal.

What matters is the recording habit. Listen to yourself regularly. Count the fillers. Track the number over time. The data keeps you honest when subjective perception lies. You'll think you're using way more fillers than you actually are, which can be discouraging—until you compare to last month's recording.

Quick exercises to try today

Don't just read this. Practice something.

1. The one-minute recording: Talk about any topic for 60 seconds. Record it. Count your fillers. This is your baseline.
2. The pause practice: Answer three questions out loud, pausing for two full seconds before each answer. Notice how the pause feels versus how it sounds.
3. The slow-motion speech: Read a paragraph at half speed. Feel how much easier it is to think ahead when your mouth isn't racing.
4. The friend test: Ask someone to raise their hand every time you say "um" in a five-minute conversation. The instant feedback is brutally effective.

The bottom line on filler words

Fillers exist for a reason. Your brain uses them to hold the floor and buy thinking time. That's not a character flaw—it's a feature of human speech that exists in every language on Earth.

But too many fillers undermine your credibility. They make you sound nervous even when you're not. They distract from your actual message. And they're surprisingly fixable with the right techniques.

The solution isn't eliminating fillers completely. It's replacing most of them with silence. Pauses signal confidence. Fillers signal anxiety. Same gap, completely different perception.

• Record yourself regularly—awareness drives improvement
• Replace fillers with pauses, not more words
• Slow down to give your brain time to prepare
• Chunk your thoughts before speaking
• Accept that some fillers are normal and even useful

Start with the one-minute recording. Count your baseline. Then pick one technique and practice it for two weeks. You'll be surprised how quickly "um" stops being automatic—and how much more confident you sound when silence fills the gaps instead.

If you want to track your filler word reduction over time, Deepr can analyze your speech patterns and show you concrete progress. Seeing the numbers drop is oddly satisfying.