What can I say instead of 'um' in English?
For a short delay, well or hmm. For a longer one, Let me think. or That's a good question. While you choose a word, I mean or What I'm trying to say is holds the turn and tells the listener that a repair is coming.
For a short delay, well or hmm. For a longer one, Let me think. or That's a good question. While you choose a word, I mean or What I'm trying to say is holds the turn and tells the listener that a repair is coming. If you need a beat and nothing else fits, a half-second silence is the safest replacement, because it leaves no sound for a listener to count.
The substitute depends on the room. On a phone call, where the listener cannot see your face, a phrase like let me think does more work than a silence. In a presentation, a one-second pause plus let me put that another way sounds planned. At the start of a turn a filler is far more noticeable than in the middle, so if you have only one spare, spend it inside the sentence.