Germans use äh and ähm; the French use eu, euh, em, eh, and oh, and Spanish-speaking people use eh, em, este, and pues.16 There is even a sign for um in American Sign Language.17 Virtually everyone uses verbal fillers, though the frequency can vary greatly from person to person.18 A study of one language database showed that speakers produced between 1.2 and 88.5 uhs and ums for every thousand words, with a median filler rate of 17.3 per thousand words.19 Other databases show… [read post]