As a public speaker, I have been counting filler words for over a decade.
Whether listening back to my own speeches, a TEDx talk, an interview on TV, the pattern is the same: the better the speaker, the less filler words.
Beginners say “um” and “uh”.
Intermediate speakers say “like” and “y’know”.
Advanced speakers say “so” or “and”.
Filler words never fully disappear. They just get more sophisticated as you grow as a speaker. That is actually good news, because it means improvement is not about elimination. It is about awareness.
In this article, I will walk you through the seven most common filler words, why we say each one, and the five universal fixes that work across all of them. I will also share the simple tracking method I use on my own Zoom calls (the one that recently caught me saying “so” 28 times in a single meeting). By the end, you will have a working field guide for every verbal tic that shows up in your speech.
A bit of context first. I have been speaking professionally for over 14 years. Two TEDx talks, seven Toastmasters International Speech contests, hundreds of paid keynotes, and over 100 books read on the craft. The filler words are still there. I just notice them faster now.
Why Filler Words Are Not Always The Enemy
The first thing to know about filler words is that they serve a real function. Linguists call them “discourse markers,” and they actually help your listener follow your thinking. A well-placed “well…” gives your audience a heartbeat to absorb what you just said before you launch into the next idea.
The problem is not filler words themselves. The problem is unconscious filler words. When you say “um” because you genuinely need to think, that is fine. When you say “um” because your mouth is on autopilot and your brain is somewhere else, your audience hears it as hesitation.
The goal of this guide is not zero fillers. The goal is awareness, so that the fillers you do use are the ones you chose.
The 3 Categories of Filler Words
Before we get into the individual words, it helps to know the three jobs that filler words do. Once you can hear the category, you can apply the right fix.
Hesitation fillers buy you time while your brain catches up. “Um,” “uh,” “er.” These are the most obvious and the easiest to fix.
Bridging fillers hold the floor between thoughts. “So,” “well,” “and,” “you know,” “like.” These are the trickiest because they sound like real connectors.
Softener fillers hedge your confidence. “Kind of,” “sort of,” “basically,” “actually,” “literally.” These make you sound less sure of what you are saying, even when you are completely sure.
Most speakers have a “home” category. Mine is bridging. Yours might be softening. Once you know which category dominates, you know which fixes to prioritize.
7 Common Filler Words (And Quick Fixes For Each)
1) Um / Uh / Er
The classics. These are pure hesitation fillers. Your brain needs a half-second and your mouth fills the gap with a vocalization.
Quick fix: replace the vocalization with silence. The audience reads silence as confidence; they read “um” as searching. Practice closing your mouth at the end of every sentence and pausing for two beats before the next.
2) So
“So” is the bridging filler that survives every other fix. It feels logical, it sounds smart, and most speakers do not even notice they are using it. I tracked my own count recently and hit 28 in a single Zoom call.
Quick fix: replace “so” with a declarative anchor like “my recommendation is” or “the bottom line is.” The full deep dive on this one is in my article on 5 ways to stop saying “so”.
3) Like
“Like” wears three different hats. It can be an approximator (“there were like 50 people”), a quotative (“she was like, no way”), or a hedge (“it is like, kind of important”). Each one needs its own fix.
Quick fix: when you catch yourself saying “like,” ask which job it was doing. If it was approximating, swap in “about” or just give the actual number. If it was hedging, drop it entirely. (A full deep dive on stopping “like” is coming next in this series.)
4) You Know
“You know” is a validation seeker. You insert it because part of you wants the listener to nod along and agree before you finish the thought. It is the verbal equivalent of leaning forward and raising your eyebrows.
Quick fix: trust your sentence to land on its own. If your point is solid, you do not need pre-emptive agreement. Try ending three sentences in a row with a hard period and no follow-up “you know” tagged on.
5) Right
“Right” is “you know” wearing a suit. Common in business and academic settings, especially among speakers who want to sound collaborative. It is still a validation seeker, just a more polished one.
Quick fix: same as “you know.” Let the sentence stand. If you genuinely want audience input, ask a real question instead of tagging “right?” onto every claim. Record your next presentation and count the “rights.” If the number is over five, start there.
6) Actually / Literally
These are intensifier fillers. We use them to add emphasis, but when overused, they do the opposite. If everything is “actually” surprising and “literally” amazing, nothing is.
Quick fix: cut every “actually” and “literally” from your next written email or message. Read it back. Most of them were not earning their place. The same edit applies to your speech. Save these words for moments when something is genuinely contradicting an expectation.
7) Basically / Kind of / Sort of
The softener trio. These hedge your confidence by making your statements vaguer than they need to be. “It is basically a marketing problem” sounds less authoritative than “It is a marketing problem.”
Quick fix: assume your listener can handle a definite statement. If you genuinely are not sure, say “I am not sure, but my best guess is…” which is more honest and more confident than hiding behind “basically.” Replace one softener per day in your normal speech and notice what changes.
5 Universal Fixes That Work On Every Filler Word
The quick fixes above are filler-specific. But there are five techniques that work across every filler in this guide. If you only have time to learn five things from this article, learn these.
1) The Power Pause
Finish your sentence. Stop talking. Count to two. Start the next sentence.
It feels like an eternity from the inside. From the outside, silence reads as authority. Every filler word in this guide can be replaced with a two-beat pause, and most of the time, that is the only fix you need. Practice it on your next phone call when you do not have to perform.
2) The Breath Reset
Filler words multiply when you are running out of breath. If you find yourself saying “and” or “so” between every clause, your lungs are empty and you are stalling for air.
Take a real breath at the end of each sentence. Not a gasp. A full, slow inhale. The breath itself functions as the pause, and gives your brain time to assemble the next thought without filler. Try it on your next presentation rehearsal and notice how the rhythm changes.
3) Declarative Anchors
If your brain insists on starting the next sentence with something, give it a stronger phrase than “so” or “like.”
Some that work for me:
“My recommendation is…”
“The bottom line is…”
“Here is what I would do…”
“This means…”
Pick three that sound natural in your voice and rotate them. Write them on a sticky note next to your monitor for the first month. Every time you feel a filler coming on, swap in an anchor.
4) The Executive Downbeat
Most filler words come out because our voice is rising at the end of a sentence (this is sometimes called uptalk or upspeak). When the pitch goes up, your brain interprets it as “I am not done yet” and reaches for a connector to keep going.
The fix is physical. Drop your pitch on the last word of every sentence. Speech coaches sometimes call this the “executive downbeat.” When the pitch drops, the sentence sounds finished. And when the sentence sounds finished, no filler comes naturally next. Listen to your next recorded meeting specifically for the last word of each sentence and notice the pitch.
5) Speak In Periods, Not Commas
Most fillers hide inside run-on sentences. You finish one thought. You do not actually stop. And the filler becomes the duct tape that holds the next thought to the previous one.
Imagine a literal period at the end of every sentence. When you hit it, your hands stop moving. Your mouth closes. Your voice drops. (If you have ever read aloud something you wrote and run out of breath, you have written a comma where a period belonged.) Try recording a 60-second answer to “what do you do?” and counting how many true periods you actually use.
How To Track Your Own Filler Words
None of the fixes above will stick if you do not know your baseline. Tracking your own filler words is the simplest, highest-leverage habit I have ever added to my speaking practice. Here is the method.
Pick one Zoom call this week and hit record. After the call, pull the transcript (Zoom, Otter, Fathom, or Read all give you one). Open the transcript in a document and use Find to count each filler word. Write the numbers in a simple table.
My most recent table looked like this:
“Um”: 4
“You know”: 2
“Like”: 10
“So”: 28
The “so” number was the one that surprised me. I had spent months working on “um” and “like” and felt like I had cracked the code. The data told me I had just shoved the problem one layer deeper.
Do this once a week for a month. Watch the numbers drop on whichever filler you are working on. (If they do not drop, the issue is awareness, and you may need to slow down even more on the Power Pause.) Set a calendar reminder for next Friday to pull a transcript and start your baseline.
What To Do This Week
If you only do one thing from this article, track yourself this week. The five universal fixes are powerful, but they are useless without data. The data is what turns “I should stop saying so” into “my count last week was 28; let’s see if I can get it under 20.”
Pick a single Zoom call. Pull a transcript. Count one filler word. Write the number down. Then come back next week and do it again.
The truth is that filler words are not really a speech problem. They are an awareness problem. The five fixes above are the tools, but the awareness is the engine. Once you can hear yourself in real time, the fillers start to drop on their own.
Welcome to the uncomfortable club. Let’s get better together.
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