<story><title>Show HN: Speech Coaching App – Stop Saying &apos;Umm&apos;, &apos;Like&apos;, &apos;Uhh&apos;</title><url>https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ummo/id1102924965</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pseingatl</author><text>In Spanish these are called &amp;quot;muletillas&amp;quot; and are far from a recent phenomenon. Rather than just being &amp;quot;filler&amp;quot; words, they have a purpose in speech. A speech is not a mere collection of words. Timing and delivery is just as important as eloquence. It is often better to use a filler word than an empty pause.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>galistoca</author><text>Just because something &amp;quot;exists&amp;quot; doesn&amp;#x27;t mean it&amp;#x27;s a good thing. Try to use silence instead of those ummms. You&amp;#x27;ll notice you&amp;#x27;ll get much more attention when you&amp;#x27;re talking. Silence introduces tension to conversations which makes people pay attention. This is based both on theory (there are tons of books out there that talk about this) and practice (mine).</text></comment>
<story><title>Show HN: Speech Coaching App – Stop Saying &apos;Umm&apos;, &apos;Like&apos;, &apos;Uhh&apos;</title><url>https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ummo/id1102924965</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pseingatl</author><text>In Spanish these are called &amp;quot;muletillas&amp;quot; and are far from a recent phenomenon. Rather than just being &amp;quot;filler&amp;quot; words, they have a purpose in speech. A speech is not a mere collection of words. Timing and delivery is just as important as eloquence. It is often better to use a filler word than an empty pause.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JoshTriplett</author><text>There are better fillers to use than &amp;quot;um&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;uh&amp;quot;, though, which don&amp;#x27;t reflect as badly on the speaker.  As some random examples, you can connect things with &amp;quot;Now, [pause] ...&amp;quot;, or &amp;quot;On the other hand,&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;For that matter,&amp;quot;, or many other connecting phrases.  Those can be time-fillers too, but as long as they&amp;#x27;re not overused, they just sound like conversational language rather than making the speaker sound awkward or unpracticed.</text></comment>