Timeline for Is there a specific verb for when a person goes "um" and "ah" while they are thinking what to say?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
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| Aug 22, 2023 at 4:10 | vote | accept | mydoghasworms | ||
| May 8, 2020 at 23:27 | comment | added | TCooper | +1 but I think you forgot the case of "thinking" - "uhhhhh" & "ummmm" are incredibly common in English (US at least), but don't always fall into your three categories. Sometimes it's simply a way to organize thoughts before speaking, no nervousness or evasiveness required. I'd still call it faltering, or the point of my comment, what would you/others on SE call it in that case? | |
| May 8, 2020 at 19:08 | comment | added | Nosajimiki | Back in college, my psychology book differentiated stuttering as where you get stuck on a sound like saying "w-w-w-word" and stammering was the excessive use of filler words. Newer publications though seem to typically use the terms interchangeably, and add adjectives like "repetitive", "block", "prolongation", "filler", "developmental", and "neurogenic" to define the different types of stutters better. A "developmental filler stutter" or "developmental filler stammer" specifically would be answer the OP. | |
| May 8, 2020 at 17:55 | comment | added | Darrel Hoffman | I think "stuttering" and "stammering" are more often characterized by sudden stops, trips of the tongue, or repeated syllables in speech, rather than just ums and ahs. "Faltering" may be closer in meaning. | |
| May 8, 2020 at 10:53 | comment | added | Steve Bennett | Stuttering isn't necessarily "the speaker thinking about what to say" - they know what they want to say, it just isn't coming out. | |
| May 8, 2020 at 8:28 | comment | added | mydoghasworms | I think that what they all have in common though is that the speaker is thinking about what to say. And making those noises while doing it. You'd expect there to be a medical term for it. | |
| May 8, 2020 at 1:38 | history | edited | Steve Bennett | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 7, 2020 at 6:19 | comment | added | Steve Bennett | Thanks, have incorporated these comments. | |
| May 7, 2020 at 6:18 | history | edited | Steve Bennett | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 7, 2020 at 6:15 | comment | added | Peter - Reinstate Monica | I think hemming and hawing is indeed the proper idiom 'for when a person goes “um” and “ah”'. | |
| May 7, 2020 at 5:27 | comment | added | mcalex | In the evasive area, it's Humming and hawing in UK, and apparently umming and ahhing in AU | |
| May 7, 2020 at 4:52 | comment | added | Mazura | If they're nervous it's stammering (but that's also known as stuttering. Only if they didn't actually have a stutter would I point out the fact that someone was stammering). | |
| May 7, 2020 at 2:22 | history | answered | Steve Bennett | CC BY-SA 4.0 |