What do you think of ums and uhs?

I'm curious to know what you guys and gals think.

Well I uh think that um this uh uh is a good ummmmm question. Caue like I um you know uhhhh, heee heee. I mean you know.....I think that your ummmm ummm question ahhh ahhh highlights a problem like with talking ya know....from other people and uh ah ummm you know the way they communicate um.

um's and mmm's can be used to great effect. Uh's are weak. Duh is something that annoys me. Have we passed some time here???

They are fill words that show the speaker isn't sure of the topic. Toastmasters organization can help eliminate them (you obtain a point off for each "um" "uh" etc. that you use in your presentations.)

It's best when having to think when speaking (imagine that!) to pause and leave silence rather than an um.

It takes longer to listen to someone who uses fill words, and can become boring or annoying if constant. There are many preachers and motivational speakers I know who might not use um or uh but have their own catch phrases that provide a similar effect: "now listen", "anyone out there?", "if you know what I mean" etc.

I do them a lot so I guess I can't say they annoy me.

I do them a lot as well, but that's precisely why they annoy me

It doesn't bug me when other people do it, but when I'm talking and I keep doing it, even though I'm consciously trying not to do it, that gets really frustrating.

I don't like to hear them but find them fun when writing. They are great to use for effect.
Now lets take a poll about the word, "LIKE"....that is annoying

I can completely excuse them in people in whom I have little invested, say, a stranger. (But I can and will lose interest in what they have to say, pretty quickly.)

I cannot tolerate hearing them used by professionals, or television presenters, or anyone who should have enough education to help you avoid using them, altogether. It becomes very annoying, very fast.

Why do you ask?

Infrequent use is okay but if it starts sounding like 2007 Miss Teen South Carolina it is a problem.

speaker opens his mouth and liberally sprinkles "um", "you know", "uh" or "like"

I guess it depends on how it is being used. By a person who is naturally nervous or
caught off guard about something...perfectly natural. When a person makes it a lifestyle of speech...I feel sympathetic for that person and thankful I had a grammar nazi for a big brother.

I don't really care. Most of the time, I don't notice unless the ums or uhs are used excessively. Some university professors use those words a lot. I transcribe lectures for the hearing impaired and have to add all the fillers including the ums and uhs.

Like really annoys me. Like, like, like.... Blame Moon Unit Zappa. The use of that annoying word says so much about a person.

Ummm.... well I have to say I find the umms and uhs and mmms..... quite endearing! Shows we have feelings and we are not robots so umm... that's what I think.

Lol I was in Toastmasters In normal conversation those fillers don't bother me, but in public speaking they drive me crazy.

Exactly... if I use umm or mmm I'm usually trying to soften the blow when saying something that might hurt or disappoint the person I'm talking to. Mitigation

Honestly, I struggle with it, ... I don't think I've ever had a comment on it, but I know my own uming and uhing annoys me. I get so anxious and OCD-y, that I struggle to think, let alone speak. Problem is, I want to kick up a YouTube channel, in which I "present" something, but I don't really want to spend all that time editing out my ums and uhs. ¬_¬

I don't hear it. It is natural for spoken language not to be like written language.

That is why it is so incredibly stupid to subtitle the Umms. It looks dumb. We don't do it where I live and I'm glad.

I do it all of the time! Not out of lack of preparation or stupidity, but due to my brain surgery ~ this is one of the effects. My TBI one year later intensified that side effect.

It really bugs me though! I carry a lot of anxiety about this side effect, as I notice a lot of people becoming frustrated and/or impatient with me, as I search for the "right word/or term" in conversation.

everything's ok in moderation (exaggeration)

Shezbut, I don't have TBI, but I have a disorder that makes it hard for me to find the words I want or remember what I'm talking about. It used to make me so mad, which only increased the problem. One of my profs in grad school suggested I say "I'm having trouble finding the words I want." when it happens. Having a stand-by statement takes some of the stress off.

As for the original topic about um, er uh... For the most part it doesn't bother me. It depends on the context and situation for me. It bugs the snot out of me if it's a professional people in a professional setting. One of our former presidents couldn't speak a sentence without er, uh, umming his way through. He sounded like a moron. Wait a minute! He was a moron!

In everyday conversation it doesn't bother me unless it's excessive.

never really thought about it until today, hee hee. now i'll spend the rest of hte day seeing if i do that! LOL!

Can't say I really care that much, might get a bit annoying if its very excessive...but even then I will try and have patience but might end up losing track of what's going on in the discussion.

I know use plenty ums and uhs, a lot of times when I am talking it can be a bit hard to put things into words so I might say that while trying to figure out what else to say or how to word it....or what is really annoying is when I lose my train of thought mid-sentence and am stuck ummming while trying to figure out what I was saying.

Or if people are asking questions where I have to think about the answer, because sometimes its hard to remember stuff right away.

I don't care if professionals or whatever say uh or um, they are humans to so I imagine even with education and all that people are going to slip up when verbally communicating.

I was in Toastmasters back in the day; every meeting of Toastmasters featured an "ah counter," whose job was to count up how many uhs, ums, etc. each speaker at the meeting used. As for the trophy awarded to the person with the most ahs, uhs, ums, and so on...let's be polite and say it features the south end of a north-bound horse.

I use them a lot especially "um" for effect; as in "Um, YEAH!" to add to the emphasis.

I don't like it in written form... makes the author looks smug to me..

I hate it when someone says "umm..... no" instead of just "no".