Understanding Hesitations and Fillers
CEFR Level B1Lesson Goals
In this lesson, you will learn to recognize common English hesitations and fillers. Mastering this skill will help you listen more effectively and focus on the speaker's main message in natural conversations.
What Are Fillers?
In natural, unscripted speech, people often pause to think. To fill the silence during these pauses, they use sounds and words called fillers. These words add no real meaning; they simply signal that the person is thinking.
Your goal as a listener is to hear these fillers but not focus on them. Just wait for the important words to come. Common fillers include:
- um...
- uh...
- er...
- like...
- you know...
- well...
- so...
Examples in Context
Listen to the clean sentence first, then hear how it sounds with natural fillers. Notice how the fillers don't change the core meaning.
Clean: "I would like a ticket to Angkor Wat."
Natural: "I would like, uh... a ticket to, um... Angkor Wat."
Clean: "The weather is very hot, but the temple was beautiful."
Natural: "The weather is, like, really hot, but the temple was, you know, beautiful."
Key Tip: Train Your Brain to Ignore Fillers
At the B1 level, your new listening challenge is to improve your comprehension speed. A key part of this is training your brain to filter out "noise" like fillers.
When you hear "um," "uh," or "like," think of it as a brief pause, not a word you need to translate or understand. By learning to ignore them, you free up mental energy to focus on the main message. This reduces listening stress and makes it easier to follow fast conversations.
Practice: Listen Through the Fillers
Listen to the sentences in the audio player. Your job is to ignore the "thinking words" and identify the main message.
-
"Well, I think we should, uh... leave at about, um... 6 PM, because, you know, the traffic gets bad."
What is the most important information?
Show Answer
Answer: B) They should leave at 6 PM. The information about traffic is the reason, but the main message is the departure time.
-
"I, um, I want to order the, uh, fried rice, please."
What is the main message?
Show Answer
Answer: B) The speaker wants to order fried rice.
-
"So, like, the next bus, you know, it leaves in about, er, ten minutes."
What is the main message?
Show Answer
Answer: A) The next bus leaves in ten minutes.
Vocabulary
-
Hesitation / Filler (noun) [ការស្ទាក់ស្ទើរ / ពាក្យបំពេញ]
A sound (um, uh) or word (like, you know) used to pause in a conversation, often while thinking.
-
To Ignore (verb) [មិនអើពើ]
To intentionally not listen to or pay attention to something.
-
Main Message (noun phrase) [សារចម្បង]
The most important idea or piece of information a speaker is trying to communicate.
Your Mission
Ready to apply your new skills? Try these tasks.
- The Filler Hunt: Watch a casual interview or vlog on YouTube (search for "celebrity interview" or "daily vlog"). Listen for fillers for one minute. Which ones does the speaker use most often?
- Natural Speaking Practice: Record yourself explaining what you did yesterday in English. If you need to pause and think, try using "um" or "well" instead of being silent or using a Khmer hesitation sound. This will make your spoken English sound more natural.