Filler words in the Russian language and how to break the habit of using them

Record yourself on a voice recorder. About three minutes, about anything. How your day went, what you watched yesterday. Then listen to it.

The first feeling is the same for everyone. Is that really me speaking?

And you talk something like this: «Well, I, basically, yesterday, like, went to the store, and there, you know, the line is just, as it were, huge.» There is only one thought in this sentence. It took twice as many words as necessary to express it.

These extra little words are called parasites. The name is apt, but not entirely fair. A parasite attaches itself to something else and lives at its expense. But these ones work, and how. It's just that their work is menial, and it shouldn't have been brought out in public.

Scaffolding that was forgotten to be removed

They are building a house. Scaffolding is put up around it; without it, you can't raise a wall or plaster the facade. The house was finished, but they forgot to take down the scaffolding. There stands a beautiful building, all covered in pipes and boards.

These are filler words.

The speaker's brain works slower than their tongue. While the head is picking the next word, the mouth refuses to stay silent. Silence in a conversation is an uncomfortable thing; during a pause, the interlocutor might jump in with their own remark. And the mouth plugs the hole with whatever it can. With whatever comes to hand. «Well,» «so,» «like,» «um.».

The word did its job. It held the line while the thought was catching up. After that, it needs to be cleared away, but habit won't let it go.

Hence the main conclusion for those who struggle with this. It is useless to order yourself not to say «in short». Scaffolding is not erected out of stupidity, it is needed. You need to remove not the word, but the need for it.

This should also be said. Not a single language is free from this affliction. An Englishman drags out like and you know, a German inserts his also, a Japanese person stretches out eto. Whoever studies spoken Russian habits usually looks for some Russian peculiarity, but finds the exact same thing that goes on at home. The mechanics are the same for all peoples, only the vocabulary differs.

Who do we have on this list

There will be about a dozen and a half, and they are divided into three breeds.

The first breed removes responsibility from the speaker. This category includes «like» and «sort of,» the main irritants for the older generation. «I sort of agree» means not entirely agreeing, or agreeing but ready to back out. Close by are «overall» and «in principle,» which promise a conclusion but stick out anywhere, most often right at the beginning. Behind this whole crowd is often just a simple habit, with no caution left in it at all.

The second category plugs gaps in memory and thought. A person drags out «thingamajig» and «whatchamacallit» while trying to remember the right word. «In short» promises brevity and never delivers it; usually, the longest part of the story follows it. «So» was handed down to us from lecturers and bosses; it means nothing at all and is inserted for a sense of importance and rhythm. Here, too, are «well» and «there,» the most frequent and most harmless of all, which will be discussed separately later.

The third breed begs for the interlocutor's attention. «Listen», «you see», «you know» require a nod in response. In small doses this is politeness, in large ones it is already begging for attention. Standing apart is the recent trend like «imagine that», «hardcore», «factually» and «purely». Fads bring them in and wash them away in a couple of years, but the habit remains after them. About where else leads colloquial element, wrote separately.

Whoever looks for Russian filler words usually gets such a list and rests on it. The list is half the battle. Next, you need to understand where they come from.

Where are they coming from?

Upon analysis, there are four reasons, and they stem from one another.

At the root lies a lack of words. The head searches for the right ones, the mouth fills the silence. This happens when a person is talking about a difficult topic or in a non-native language. From this same source stems the second reason: the fear of speaking directly. A direct word requires courage; you will have to stand by it. «This is a bad idea» is said firmly. «Well, this is kind of a so-so idea» is said softly, and there is room to back down. The less confident a person is in the subject, the more thickly they surround themselves with softeners.

The third reason comes from the outside. Speech is contagious like yawning, and people catch not only garbage from those around them, but also real mistakes. Listen to people for a month who say «facts» every minute, and you'll start saying it yourself, even if this little word used to annoy you. And the fourth one overlays all the others. It's haste. A person in a hurry puts a phrase together on the fly, builds nothing in advance, and the seams are sticking out.

The first reason for children abroad is the main one. There are fewer Russian words, they are searched for longer, and the pause has to be filled with something. That is why bilinguals often scatter fillers more thickly than their peers from Russia, although they speak correctly at the same time.

Separately about «uh» and «um.» Formally these aren't even words, just sounds, but they perform the exact same function and annoy the listener even more. In English they are called vocal fillers and people fight against them in all public speaking courses. In Russian, mumbling is considered a sign of being unprepared, and it is eliminated the same way as verbal trash, through a pause.

Where is the particle and where is the speck of dust

Now about «well» and «there you go,» and this is the trickiest part of the whole conversation.

The fact is that «nu», «vot», «eto», «zhe» serve as full-fledged particles, and they have plenty of work to do. We analyzed them separately, and there they act as a tool, adjusting, softening, highlighting, and conveying the speaker's attitude.

The same word can be both a deed and trash. The difference is whether it works or sits idle.

See for yourself. «What weather!» Here «well» carries surprise; it cannot be dropped, or the phrase will fall apart. «Well, I, well, went, well, home.» And here it carries nothing except a filled pause.

The test is simple and works for any word. Throw it out and read the phrase again. The meaning survived, and it sounds cleaner; what you have before you is filler. Something was lost, a nuance or feeling, the word was doing its job.

That's why bans like «never say „here“» are no good. You should use it, but only when appropriate.

Curiously, filler words reveal a speaker's age just as well as a passport. «So» and «ergo» we inherited from Soviet-era lecturers. «Kind of» blossomed in the nineties, and this surge is often linked to the general uncertainty of those years. «Like» and «purely,» as is commonly believed, came from prison jargon and made themselves at home in teenage speech. And «in fact» and «go figure» are quite fresh. Listen to a person for a minute, and it becomes clear in what years their speech was formed.

What are the consequences

Let's make it clear right away: there is no catastrophe. Speech with fillers remains normal human speech, almost everyone talks like that, and there is nothing to be ashamed of here.

Trouble begins where people listen closely. At a job interview, during a thesis defense, in an oral exam, in a conversation with someone new. That is when trouble creeps in, and all three kinds at once. People start hearing you less, because the listener filters out the garbage themselves, but spends energy doing so and simply tunes out by the fifth minute. You get written off as unconfident, because filler words sound as though the speaker doesn't trust themselves, and the examiner will note this even if the answer is correct. On top of that, time slips away, which is already in short supply during a presentation: clutter takes up the space where another thought of yours could have been.

And in friendly banter all of this doesn't matter. At home, with buddies, in chat speak however it comes out.

And another observation, comforting for adults. Filler words in speech are in no way connected to intelligence and education. A university professor scatters «so» and «well» just as often as a teenager with their «like.» The difference is merely in the vocabulary. Someone who writes wonderful texts can be inarticulate in spoken speech, because writing allows you to cross things out, while conversation goes clean and immediately.

The pause in a foreign culture deserves a special mention. Russian conversation does not like pauses; two seconds of silence already feel awkward, and the speaker rushes to fill them. In a Finnish or Japanese conversation, silence is normal and even polite. A child growing up abroad knows this difference firsthand, and it is helpful to explain it, because what is considered a normal pause at home would be deemed a failure in Russia, which is where the habit of chattering comes from.

How to break the habit

There are few methods, but they work.

It all starts with a voice recorder. Until a person catches themselves on tape, they are sure they speak cleanly. Three minutes, and the matter is closed. Unpleasant, but sobering. Next, you should listen to the recording with a pencil and mark every «like,» because a number is more effective than any persuasion. Twenty-eight «sort ofs» in five minutes are remembered for a long time.

The main thing starts afterwards, and it is about silence. A filler word plugs the pause, which means you need to learn to sustain the pause. Silence in speech is not a failure. It is a sign of confidence; the person is thinking and is not afraid of what others will think of them. Good speakers love the pause and use it on purpose.

Preparation also helps. Half of fillers are born because a person does not know what they will say a sentence later. You’ve thought out a plan, and there are half as many seams. And reading aloud goes well paired with a plan, because someone else's text contains no clutter, and the mouth gets used to clean speech. Fifteen minutes a day in a month accomplishes more than any prohibitions.

There is a trickier method for those who have an upcoming speech. Say the speech out loud and record it. Then transcribe the first two minutes onto paper word for word, along with all the «ums» and «uhs.» Hearing your own speech on paper is more sobering than any recording, because the verbal garbage is visible to the eye and doesn't slip past the ear. It's an old method used by both news anchors and speech instructors.

As for moderation, it won't be possible to weed out every single one, and there's no need to. Speech without a single hesitation sounds like a station announcement. The goal is to dial it back to a level where the clutter doesn't get in the way of listening.

A special case where Russian is second

The general recipe doesn't work entirely here.

A bilingual child doesn't pepper his speech with filler words out of carelessness. He's just stalling while he searches for the right Russian word. If you scold him for it, he'll stop speaking Russian altogether.

Something else works. Expanding the vocabulary so that words are found faster. Letting them speak on familiar topics where words are readily available. And praising them for a long, clean phrase and not scolding them for «like.».

There is also a flip side that people forget about. That same child often pauses using English. First «um», then «like», then «you know». This is no longer about vocabulary. Here the brain has switched to another language. A simple request helps here. Notice that you've inserted an English word, repeat the whole phrase in Russian.

It is also useful to know about written speech. Verbal garbage also appears in correspondence, it just looks different. «By the way,» «anyway,» «kind of» have migrated to messengers along with ellipses, which are used to visually plug pauses. The difference is that a message can be reread before sending, and you should make a habit of doing this, at least for emails to a teacher or an admissions office. Three seconds of rereading eliminates half of the garbage.

And the last thing that advice columns usually don't mention: fighting parasites in someone else's speech is useless and rude. Counting a conversational filler behind your interlocutor, correcting a friend mid-sentence, making remarks to a colleague at a meeting. All of this ruins relationships and fixes no one. A person changes their own speech by themselves, and even then, not right away.

At our school, they don't chase parasites with a ruler. They are counted on the recording together with the child, and this turns out to be more interesting than any reprimand. Palme School works with children from four to seventeen years old. The groups are small, and the level is determined in advance. You can start with two free lessons. The first is with a methodologist who gets to know the child and selects a group, the second is a trial lesson in a group with a teacher.

Listen to yourself again

Return to the recording after a month of work. It usually goes like this. The parasites are still there, only there are half as many, and the pauses that you used to fear are now in the right places and don't get in the way of listening.

The scaffolding was removed. The house remained.

Frequently asked questions about filler words