Blog

Do you ‘Um’ too Often?

Do you ‘Um’ too Often?

English speakers lob in ‘um’ before a long pause and ‘uh’ in front of a brief hiatus.

People even create compounds such as ‘the-um’ or ‘and-uh’, showing that speakers know that there is going to be a problem after the word even before they begin it.   Also, beginning an answer with ‘um’ is interpreted as showing greater uncertainty than a silent pause of the same length.

Public speakers can learn to suppress umming and erring thereby hiding moments of uncertainty. There’s not a single ‘um’ or ‘uh’ in any of the recorded inaugural addresses made by US presidents between 1940 and 2009.

Despite the above findings, here’s the odd thing about it all: Other studies have shown that listeners process speech more quickly with the ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’ left in than when they are taken out. So where does that leave us?

There is no doubt that too many vocal interjections diminish a lot more than the flow of the presentation. If you listen to a presenter and s/he is constantly umming and or erring then you might reach one of these conclusions: Either the person if very nervous and if so, of what? Are they trying to hide something, are they not convinced themselves? If they are nervous about it then shouldn’t I be nervous too? Or perhaps they are lying? People who can’t or won’t tell you the truth tend to um and err a lot. They also avert their eyes which is very common in most business presentations. Oh dear. Or maybe that they’re not prepared and haven’t done their homework or haven’t done it enough. That equates to being unprofessional and that reflects directly back on to the company or organisation itself.

As the study suggested, the occasional um and err adds to the ability of the audience to process the speech. So we need a few, but not many. The real trick is in reducing the quantity.

How to reduce them:

Always practice by standing up and practicing aloud. This affords you an opportunity to go through your material and practice the pauses in silence.

Play the Um’n’Er game. Where you and a friend with a stop watch try to speak on a given topic for 30 seconds at a time without saying single um or err. Your friend watches the clock while you speak and then you change roles. It’s very effective and a lot of fun as well.

Posted in Blog