# How to Stop Saying Um and Uh When You Speak (Practical Steps)

You say um and uh when your mouth is ready to speak before your next thought is. To cut them, learn to pause silently instead: count your fillers in a one-minute recording, practice replacing each one with a short silent pause, and repeat weekly. The goal is fewer fillers, not zero; a few sound natural.

By the Speaking Coach team at Sodhera Intelligence. Updated 2026-10-22. Source: https://www.orecci.com/speaking-coach/guides/stop-saying-um/

## Why um and uh happen

"Um" and "uh" aren't random. They're a signal, mostly to the listener, that you're still talking and need a moment. That's why they bunch up in predictable places:

| Where they cluster | Why | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The start of an answer | You're searching for your first sentence | "Um, so, uh, I guess my biggest strength…" |
| Between points | You've finished one idea and are finding the next | "…and that went well. Uh, and then…" |
| Before a hard word or number | You're retrieving something specific | "We grew it by, um, about forty percent." |
| When you're nervous | Silence feels risky, so you fill it | Any high-pressure answer |
| When you're interrupted | You're trying to keep the turn | "Yeah, um, um, what I meant was…" |

Knowing where yours cluster is half the fix. Most people have one main spot, usually the start.

## Fewer, not zero

Trying to never say "um" again usually backfires. You get so focused on avoiding the sound that you lose your train of thought and stall harder. Listeners hardly notice the odd "um" in natural speech. What they notice is a cluster: three before the first point, or one in every sentence.

A realistic target: no fillers in your first sentence, and no more than one in a row anywhere.

## The pause-instead drill

The replacement for "um" is a silent pause. It does the same job (gives you time) without the sound. It feels long to you and sounds normal, even confident, to the listener.

1. **Pick a simple topic.** Your morning, your job, a film you saw.
2. **Talk for 60 seconds out loud.** Every time you feel an "um" coming, close your lips and stay silent instead. Breathe through your nose.
3. **Let the pause last.** Count "one" in your head. Then carry on.
4. **Repeat with a harder topic.** Explain something from work, or answer an interview question.
5. **Add pressure.** Do it with a timer, or with someone asking you questions.

Closing your lips is the key physical trick. It's hard to say "um" with your mouth shut. Read more in [how to use pauses](/speaking-coach/guides/how-to-use-pauses/).

## A four-week count-and-cut plan

This plan uses the free [filler word counter](/speaking-coach/tools/filler-word-counter/), which counts fillers from your voice or a pasted transcript in your browser.

| Week | Daily exercise (5 min) | End-of-week check |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **1. Count** | Talk for one minute on a different topic each day. Don't try to change anything. Note your count and where the fillers came. | Write down your average and your top filler. |
| **2. Fix the first sentence** | Before each one-minute talk, decide your first sentence. Say it with no filler in front. | Is your first sentence clean most days? |
| **3. Pause between points** | Talk for two minutes. At each new point, close your lips, pause, then go. | Compare your count with week 1. |
| **4. Add pressure** | Answer interview questions or explain work topics, with a time limit. | Record a two-minute answer and compare with day 1. |

A note on the count: browser speech recognition is built to write clean text, so it often drops "um" and "uh". "Like", "so" and "you know" are caught more reliably. If your count looks suspiciously low, listen to your recording as well. If "like" is your main habit, see [how to stop saying like](/speaking-coach/guides/how-to-stop-saying-like/).

## Habits that make fillers worse

- **Speaking faster than you think.** Fillers appear when your mouth gets ahead of your brain. Slowing down slightly gives you room. The [pace checker](/speaking-coach/tools/pace-checker/) shows your words per minute.
- **Not knowing your point.** If you don't know where a sentence is going, you'll fill while you find out. Decide the point first, then speak.
- **Long, linked sentences.** "And… and so… and then" chains invite fillers at every join. Shorter sentences give you natural stops.
- **Memorised scripts.** When you lose a word in a script, you fill while hunting for it. Know your points, not your sentences.

## What to say instead of um

Sometimes you genuinely need a moment, and silence feels too long. These short bridges sound deliberate rather than stuck:

> "Let me think about that for a second."
>
> "Good question. The short answer is…"
>
> "There are two parts to that."

Use them once, at the start of an answer. They stop working if you use them before every point.

If you want feedback on real conversations, Speaking Coach counts your filler words after each practice session and gives tips that quote what you actually said, so you can see whether it's always the same kind of moment.

## Questions people ask

### Why do I say um so much?

Usually because you're starting to speak before you know your next words, or because silence makes you nervous. Both get better with practice pausing on purpose.

### Is saying um a sign of nervousness?

Not always. Calm, fluent speakers use it too, especially in casual talk. It becomes noticeable when nerves make it cluster.

### How many filler words per minute is normal?

There's no official number. A rough personal goal is a clean first sentence and no back-to-back fillers. Track your own count over time rather than comparing with others.

### How long does it take to stop saying um?

Many people see their count drop within a few weeks of daily practice. It comes back under pressure, so keep practicing with harder questions.

### Are um and uh different?

Some people use "uh" for a short hesitation and "um" for a longer one. For practice purposes, treat them the same: replace both with a pause.

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