Filler Words Examples in Everyday Life - A List

Life Skills > Interpersonal Intelligence > Call Center Sales & Customer Service Tips
Effective language usage is one of the vital elements of both persuasive skills and empathy skills. Like mother tongue influences, verbal fillers are yet another speech filler that should be avoided if you want your sales presentation to be effective and efficient. Verbal virus, verbal tics, lexical and non-lexical fillers, speech filler, word filler, and filler phrases, conversation fillers are some of the common terms used for verbal filler words.

Verbal Filler Words in
Speech with Examples

SCREEN acronym summarizes a list of filler words during a speech:

• Stretch words
• Caught phrases
• Repetitive words
• Er..Um..uhn..
• Ended Half
• Non English

Stretch Words Affect Comprehensibility

For the same above two reasons, as in um..uhn.. sounds, stretch words fills the speech. Stretch words can also affect the rate of speech by bringing down the number of words per minute. Stretch words can be eliminated by consciously choosing and stressing keywords in a conversation.
A sample speech that has stretch words:
"Good Morning, today we will havvvvveeeeeee thhhhhheeeeeee meeting foooooorrrrraaaa half an hour annnnnnnndddd will talk abbbboooooouut goal setting strategies"
Caught Phrases are Unnecessary Filler Phrases that Adds Little or No Meaning  Caught phrases are repetitive phrases and statements used frequently in between conversations. Most speakers use caught phrases subconsciously and realize it only when they hear their own speech through tape recording their speeches.

List of common filler words in speech:

"You know"
"So"
"Kind of"
"Like"
"Sought of"
"Basically"
"Actually"
"Literally"
"OK?"
"Yeah"
"Well"
An example statement of caught phrases by a corporate trainer:
"You know, this is one of the best ways to improve listening skills, you know, they are widely used by top business professionals across the globe, you know, and I use these listening technique in my own life, you know, so try to use them in your life too, you know."

Repetitive Words and Phrases

Repetitive words differ from redundant phrases in that the same words are repeated unnecessarily.
Example speech where the speaker uses repetitive words
"I I like to you some effective ques questioning techniques that that can help you al almost all kinds of of business scenarios."

Er..Um..Uhn...Huh...Ahhhhn...Conversation Fillers

There are two reasons for these utterances. One, they are made when one is thinking about something. Two, when there is nothing else to say. These sounds can be replaced with a pause instead.
An example of these utterances in a business presentation:
"umm..well..I am John working for ahhhn ABC company, today we will talk..uhn..ahhhn..about effective verbal communication skills."

Ended Half or Incomplete Sentences

Incomplete sentences are those statements dangling in a speech. Public speakers and corporate trainers end up making these statements when they are in hurry, or when they fail to organize their speech.
Examples of incomplete sentences in a speech:
"I am sure some of you...well tell me how many of you are married? Ok..good to see so many..what I want to really say is..ok...let us talk something about human relationships."

Non English is Other Language Words 

Words used from multiple languages during a conversation are not only confusing but may also lead to misunderstanding.
For instance, during a training session, a presenter whose mother tongue is Hindi (one of the Indian languages) slips in a Hindi word in his speech:
"Hi everybody, these presentation slides look pakka, but it needs formatting and proofing-reading."
The word, "pakka" means perfect in Hindi. This presenter unknowingly brought in a word from his mother tongue language while speaking in English or even in your written communication.

How to Eliminate Fillers in Speech 

One can record their own speech to spot repetitive words and put conscious effort to get rid of them. Simply replace with these filler words with silence.

Avoid Speech Fillers when you're:

• Delivering an effective presentation or narrating an anecdotes/stories
• Giving/Receiving compliments and constructive feedback
• Persuading and negotiating with others
• learning to say, "No" politely
• Willing to make assertive communication
• are introducing yourself
• empathizing with others
• building rapport
• handling customers calls and sales presentations
• having common everyday communication with friends, relatives and in professional life conversations.
• Handling interpersonal conflicts

Filler words, like other verbal communication barriers such as redundant words, judgmental phrases, generalizations and negative words.
Besides intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills is one of the life skills and verbal communication is an element. Besides using creative language skills such as effective transitional statements, figure of speeches, and rapport building statements, the salesperson must also eliminate mother tongue influence(MTI) and verbal filler words, phrases and statements to make their sales presentation effective and efficient.