Filler (linguistics) - Filler Words in Different Languages

Filler Words in Different Languages

• In Afrikaans, ah, em, and eh are common fillers.
• In Arabic, يعني yaʿni ("I mean") and وﷲ wallāh(i) ("by God") are common fillers.
• In American Sign Language, UM can be signed with open-8 held at chin, palm in, eyebrows down (similar to FAVORITE); or bilateral symmetric bent-V, palm out, repeated axial rotation of wrist (similar to QUOTE).
• In Bengali, mane ("it means") is a common filler.
• In Catalan, eh /ə/, doncs ("so"), llavors ("therefore"), and o sigui ("it means") are common fillers.
• In Czech, fillers are called "slovní vata", meaning "word cotton/padding". The most frequent fillers are čili or takže ("so"), prostě ("simply"), jako ("like"). Overuse of jako and prostě becomes a bad habit among youth and could be viewed as simple-minded.
• In Danish, øh is one of the most common fillers.
• In Dutch, eh, ehm, and dus ("thus") are some of the more common fillers. Also eigenlijk ("actually"), zo ("so"), nou ("well") in Netherlandic Dutch, allez ("come on") or (a)wel ("well") in Belgian Dutch, weet je? ("you know?") etc.
• In Esperanto, do ("therefore") is the most common filler.
• In Filipino, ah, eh, ay, and ano are the most common fillers.
• In Finnish, niinku ("like"), tota, and öö are the most common fillers.
• In French, euh /ø/ is most common; other words used as fillers include quoi ("what"), bah, ben ("well"), tu vois ("you see"), t』vois c』que j'veux dire? ("you see what I mean?"), tu sais, t'sais ("you know"), and eh bien (roughly "well", as in "Well, I'm not sure"). Outside of France, other expressions are t'sais veux dire? ("you know what I mean?"), or allez une fois ("go one time"). Additional filler words used by youngsters include genre ("kind"), comme ("like"), and style ("style"; "kind").
• In German, a more extensive series of filler words, called modal particles, exists, which actually do give the sentence some meaning. More traditional filler words are äh /ɛː/, hm, so /zoː/, tja, and eigentlich ("actually").
• In Hebrew, eh is the most common filler. Em is also quite common. Young speakers commonly use "Ke'ilu" (the Hebrew version of "like").
• In Hindi, matlab ("it means") and "Mah" are fillers.
• In Hungarian, filler sound is ő, common filler words include hát, nos (well...) and asszongya (a variant of azt mondja, which means "it says here..."). Among intellectuals, ha úgy tetszik (if you like) is used as filler.
• In Icelandic, a common filler is hérna ("here"). Þúst, a contraction of þú veist ("you know"), is popular among younger speakers.
• In Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), anu is one of the most common fillers.
• In Italian, common fillers include "tipo" ("like"), "ecco" ("there") and "cioè" ("actually")
• In Irish Gaelic, abair /ˈabˠəɾʲ/ ("say"), bhoil /wɛlʲ/ ("well"), and era /ˈɛɾˠə/ are common fillers, along with emm as in Hiberno-English.
• In Japanese, common fillers include eetto, ano, sono, and ee.
• In Kannada,Matte for also,Enappa andre for the matter is are the common fillers.
• In Korean, eung, eo, ge, and eum are commonly used as fillers.
• In Lithuanian, nu, am and žinai ("you know") are common fillers.
• In Maltese and Maltese English, mela ("then"), or just la, is a common filler.
• In Mandarin Chinese, speakers often say 這個 zhège/zhèige ("this") or 那個 nàge/nèige ("that"). Other common fillers are 就 jìu ("just") and 好像 "very like/"kinda like"}}.
• In Nepali, maane or माने ("meaning"), chaine or चैने, chai or चैं, and haina or हैन ("No?") are commonly used as fillers.
• In Norwegian, common fillers are øh, altså, på en måte ("in a way"), ikke sant (literally "not true?", "no kidding", or "exactly"), vel ("well"), and liksom ("like"). In Bergen, sant ("true") is often used instead of ikke sant. In the Trøndelag region, skjø' ("see?" or "understand?") is also a common filler.
• In Persian, bebin ("you see"), چیز "chiz" ("thing"), and مثلا masalan ("for instance") are commonly-used filler words. As well as in Arabic and Urdu, يعني yaʿni ("I mean") is also used in Persian. Also, eh is a common filler in Persian.
• In Portuguese, é, hum, então ("so") and tipo ("like") are the most common fillers.
• In Punjabi, matlab ("it means") is a common filler.
• In Romanian, deci /detʃʲ/ ("therefore") is common, especially in school, and ă /ə/ is also very common (can be lengthened according to the pause in speech, rendered in writing as ăăă), whereas păi /pəj/ is widely used by almost anyone.
• In Russian, fillers are called слова-паразиты ("vermin words"); the most common are Э-э ("eh"), это ("this"), того ("that"), ну ("well"), значит ("it means"), так ("so"), как его ("what's it "), типа ("like"), and как бы (" like").
• In Serbian, znači ("means") and ovaj ("this") are common fillers.
• In Slovak, oné ("that"), tento ("this"), proste ("simply"), or akože ("it's like…") are used as fillers. The Hungarian izé (or izí in its Slovak pronunciation) can also be heard, especially in parts of the country with a large Hungarian population. Ta is a filler typical of Eastern Slovak and one of the most parodied features.
• In Slovene, pač ("but", although it has lost that meaning in colloquial, and it is used as a means of explanation), a ne? ("right?"), and no ("well") are some of the fillers common in central Slovenia, including Ljubljana.
• In Spanish, fillers are called muletillas. Some of the most common in American Spanish are e /e/, este ("this"), and o sea (roughly means "I mean", literally means "it means")., in Spain the previous fillers are also used, but ¿Vale? ("right?") and ¿no? are very common too.
• In Swedish, fillers are called utfyllningsord; some of the most common are öhm, ja ("yes"), ba (comes from "bara", which means "just"), asså or alltså ("therefore", "thus"), va (comes from "vad", which means "what"), and liksom and typ (both similar to the English "like").
• In Ukrainian, е ("eh", similar to "um"), ну ("Nu (well)"), і ("and"), цей ("this"), той-во ("this one") are common fillers.
• In Urdu, yani ("meaning..."), flana flana ("this and that"; "blah blah"), haan haan ("yeah yeah") and acha ("ok") are also common fillers.
• In Telugu, ikkada entante ("Whats here is...") and tarwatha ("then...") are common and there are numerous like this.
• In Tamil, paatheenga-na ("if you see...") and apparam ("then...") are common.
• In Turkish, yani ("meaning..."), şey ("thing"), "işte" ("that is"), and falan ("as such", "so on") are common fillers.
• In Welsh, de or ynde is used as a filler (loosely the equivalent of "You know?" or "Isn't it?"). Ym... and Y... are used similarly to the English "um...".

Among language learners, a common pitfall is using fillers from their native tongue. For example, "Quiero una umm.... quesadilla". While less of a shibboleth, knowing the placeholder names (sometimes called kadigans) of a language (e.g. the equivalent of "thingy") can also be useful to attain fluency, such as the French truc: "Je cherche le truc qu'on utilise pour ouvrir une boîte" ("I'm looking for the thingy that you use to open up a can").