A disfluency (sometimes spelled ‘dysfluency’) is what linguists call those instances when a
speaker has trouble thinking of the right expression, or has to go back and correct
himself/herself. More often this happens before the predicate, new information, or main
idea of a sentence, as you need more time to think of how to formulate and verbalize
those ideas and words. A similar phenomenon is the ‘tip of the tongue’ phenomenon,
when a speaker is trying to think of the right word, and it seems close or familiar, but
cannot find it (“the word is on the tip of my tongue”).
For those times when you need an extra second or two to find and articulate the right
expression, which of these are better methods? Which do you use?
1. Using pause fillers: uh, um, er, oh... However, using these often or regularly can be
distracting, even annoying to listeners, and makes the speaker appear unprepared or
lacking in confidence.
2. Using other fillers: okay, you know, well, I mean, like. These can be used for slightly longer
pauses, but again, these should not be used too often. Using like is rather colloquial and
informal, as a hedge marker (see below), or in giving examples.
3. Apologizing for your speech errors – however, this is not a good idea, because it
creates a greater interruption, and it makes you look less self-confident.
4. Moving on to something else
5. Using simpler vocabulary, so you don’t have to spend too much mental effort to think
of specific vocabulary.
Dolnapa 051 3EN