A study found that one in every sixty words people speak is either um or uh. That means you are adding two or three of these 'fillers' per minute.
One idea on why we use fillers is that we can't immediately find the right word to say. But we could just as well stay silent. The real reason then is that going silent won't work.
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Similar ideas to Why we use filler words like "um" and "uh"
In a conversation, we always have to deal with who has the floor. Cooperative rules of conversation require us to use signals that regulate the flow of dialogue. If you stay silent, the other person may think you finished your turn at talking.
A filler is a signal ...
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