How to Reduce Filler Words When Speaking

Replace the filler with a pause

When you feel um, like, or you know coming, close your mouth and wait. Steven Cohen, writing for Harvard Extension, puts the mechanic simply: if you are not speaking, you cannot say um. The silence feels long to you. Listeners usually hear it as a person choosing a sentence.

You say fillers for two ordinary reasons. The mouth started before the next word was ready. Or a pause feels like dead air, so you fill it. At first you will miss many of your own fillers while you are talking. That is why a recording comes first. Catching them live is a later skill, not the starting assumption.

What counts as a filler word

Filler words are sounds or extra words that hold the floor while you think. The usual English set is um, uh, er, like, you know, so, and I mean. Toastmasters’ “Less Filler, More Substance” also tracks well, okay, basically, and phrases such as “to be honest.”

Toastmasters’ check: say the sentence without the word. If it still means the same thing, the word was a crutch. “I like strong tea” keeps like. “I, like, drink tea every morning” does not.

“I think” is not automatically a filler. It can mark real uncertainty. Do not delete it in the same pass as um. Casual conversation can carry a few likes. This page is for a formal answer: an update, an interview, a class response.

Two places they show up

Cohen’s note is still the easiest map. Watch the start of an answer, and the space between ideas.

Before the first sentence

Someone asks a question. You feel the duty to make sound immediately. Um buys a second.

Between two ideas

The first point is done. The next one is not chosen. Like, so, or you know keep the turn while you search.

A third cluster shows up when the idea itself is missing. You cannot pause your way out of an empty map. Build a point on the articulate guide, then come back to the pause.

Correction: same answer, second take

Count one filler type, not all of them. Write the number. Then say the same answer again and keep the same information. Janice Tomich uses that same-passage comparison for concise speech. A new topic cannot tell you whether the swap worked. A shorter second take with half the words also cannot.

After the two takes, ask only these questions:

• Did the target filler go down?
• Is the original information still there?
• Did you freeze and fail to finish?

Per-hundred-words rate is an optional extra if the two takes have very different lengths. The decision you want is simpler: easier to follow, with the same facts. If you skip recording, ask a listener to raise a finger on each um, the way a Toastmasters Ah-Counter would.

Transfer, then a week of short reps

After the same answer improves, try a new question. Treat that as transfer, not as a score against day one. A harder prompt, or a shorter answer, will change the raw count for reasons that have nothing to do with the pause.

The week below is a practice calendar on this site, not a studied protocol. One or two minutes a day is enough.

1. Days 1–3: correction

   Same prompt, two takes. Count one filler. Keep the information. Do not change the argument.

2. Days 4–5: notice a few live

   You will still miss some. Catching even a few before they leave the mouth is the point of these two days. It does not cancel the need to replay the recording.

3. Days 6–7: transfer

   New prompt. Use the same three questions. Do not rank the new count against Monday unless the answers carry a similar amount of information.

um / uh

Usually the opening gap or a join. Replace with a stop. Do not replace with so.

like

Often a hedge before a noun. Try the noun first: “the late train,” not “like, the late train.”

you know

A check for agreement. In a short explanation the listener cannot answer. Drop the check and finish the sentence.

so

Fine as a real consequence. Weak as a starter that means nothing. If the sentence works without it, cut it.

When filler words are fine

Friends do not need a broadcast cadence. Fillers can signal that you still hold the turn. If your problem is being cut off, pair the pause with a visible breath. Do not drag a formal-answer standard into every hallway chat. Do not aim for zero.

What this page cannot do

• It cannot count fillers automatically.
• It cannot promise you will never say um again.
• It cannot treat a stammer or a sudden speech change.
• It cannot replace choosing a point when the map is empty.

If the recording is hard to hear, the issue may be pace or dropped endings. Use how to speak clearly.

If you want a random topic next

Do the same-answer comparison first, on a question you already have. When you want an unchosen prompt, open Impromptu and keep one filler as the target. Optional local playback helps you count. There is no filler detector. Challenge rules live in the Unprompted challenge guide.

Sources and limits of this page

• Pause instead of um: Steven Cohen, Harvard Extension.
• What counts, the “remove the word” test, and Ah-Counter feedback: Yue Yin, Toastmasters, “Less Filler, More Substance” (October 2025).
• Same-passage re-record: Janice Tomich. The seven-day calendar is this site’s practice arrangement.