Listening: Understanding Natural Connected Speech B1 - Lesson 2: Understanding Speech with Some Hesitations and Fillers

B1 Natural Connected Speech: Understanding Hesitations and Fillers

Welcome! In this lesson, we will learn about a normal part of everyday speech: hesitations and fillers¹. These are the sounds and words people use when they pause to think. Learning to recognize and ignore² them is key to better understanding.

1. What are Fillers and Why Do We Use Them?

Fillers do not add meaning. People use them to fill silence while they think about what to say next. When you hear these, you know the speaker is thinking. Your job is to wait for the important words (the main message³). Some of the most common fillers are:

um...

uh...

er...

like...

you know...

well...

2. Practice with 'um' and 'uh'

Listen to a clean sentence, then listen to how it might sound in a real conversation with hesitation sounds.

Clean Sentence:

"I would like a ticket to Angkor Wat."

Natural Sentence (with fillers):

"I would like, uh... a ticket to, um... Angkor Wat."

3. Practice with 'like' and 'you know'

The words 'like' and 'you know' are very common conversational fillers. They rarely add to the main meaning.

Clean Sentence:

"The weather is very hot, but the temple was beautiful."

Natural Sentence (with fillers):

"The weather is, like, really hot, but the temple was, you know, beautiful."

4. Listening Through the Fillers

Now, let's practice extracting the key information from a sentence full of fillers. Your job is to ignore the "thinking words."

"Well, I think we should, uh... leave at about, um... 6 PM, because, you know, the traffic gets bad."

What is the important information in this sentence?

• A) The speaker thinks a lot.
• B) The traffic is bad.
• C) They should leave at 6 PM.

Click to Show Answer

Answer: C). The main message is that they should leave at 6 PM. All the other words are hesitations or explanations.

Quiz: Listen Through the Fillers

Listen to the sentences with fillers. Choose the sentence that correctly states the main message.

1. Audio 1: (Listen to the audio)

   What is the main message?
   (a) The speaker is not ready to order.
   (b) The speaker wants to order fried rice.

2. Audio 2: (Listen to the audio)

   What is the main message?
   (a) The next bus leaves in ten minutes.
   (b) The speaker does not know when the bus leaves.

Click to Show Answers

Answers: 1-b, 2-a

Homework Task

1. Filler Hunt: Watch a casual interview or a vlog on YouTube in English. Listen for fillers. Which ones does the speaker use most often? Count how many you hear in one minute!

2. Natural Speaking Practice: Try to explain what you did yesterday in English. If you need to pause and think, try using "um" or "uh" instead of being silent or using a Khmer hesitation sound. This can help your speech sound more natural.

Vocabulary Glossary

1. Hesitation / Filler (noun) - Khmer: ការស្ទាក់ស្ទើរ / ពាក្យបំពេញ - A sound (um, uh) or word (like, you know) used to pause in a conversation, often while thinking. ↩
2. To Ignore (verb) - Khmer: មិនអើពើ - To intentionally not listen or pay attention to something. ↩
3. Main Message (noun phrase) - Khmer: សារចម្បង - The most important idea or piece of information a speaker is trying to communicate. ↩