Ask Lemmy

The filler words do carry meaning just not content although using them every time establishes a new baseline. They can be used to convey vibes, to harden, soften or communicate lack of confidence for example.

If you kinda/sorta deleted a person's account, you still deleted the account but you are implicitly saying you didn't mean to for example. Lowkey can be a modifier to mean you don't feel strongly about something.

I'm french, and it's a geberational thing I guess. People my age often say "genre" (equals "kinda"), and older people find this very annoying (I'm 22)

I still use "cool" a lot, but I think its become one of those words that will persist through generations.

It's not really a filler word, but I've been corrected on my use of "just," particularly at my work place. "Just" is often used by some people to minimise the impact of what they're saying intentionally. For example, "I just think we should change the wording in this law." If you take out 'just' (and some of the other words) and say the thing you meant to say - it becomes a far punchier statement, "We should change the wording in this law."

The OP made me think of a poem by Taylor Mali, "Speak With Conviction."

Pause Break.

Take one step back and ask yourself why you criticized your friend to begin with.

There are two primary reasons people use filler words.
One is to maintain possession of the role of 'speaker' in the conversation because, if you stop for a while, someone might think you're done (if it sounded like the end of a thought) or have broken down trying to think of what to say. Spending time in environments where people have high demands for time or competition for attention can make these things worse. The other is social fear or anxiety about how your message will be received, or over one's correctness and certainty. 'I am claiming this thing for myself,' has the same ultimate goal as 'Nah, lowkey f'real, I was kinda maybe thinking of nabbing that,' but the use of the extra 'filler' words and slang is designed to obfuscate the meaning, making it passive agressive, forcing the listener to parse the extra layers of obfuscation before having a chance to object, and leaving a verbal avenue of retreat open if someone does object, allowing them to say, 'No, I said I was thinking about it.' Spending time in environments where one has to deal with openly agressive people can often make people seek out these verbal conflict avoidance techniques.

uuuhno. (That’s one word.) 🤧

The Title should be "Do You Use Filler Words?" not "Do You Needlessly Use Filler Words?". At least I really, really, really think so. /s

no, why use many words when few do trick

I mean... For real, yeah, I guess, kinda lowkey.

What the actual fuck? Literally.

Usually meant to increase the degree to which I'm being absurd or facetious. It's a manner of showing contempt for the thing I'm describing. I use it to joke more than with actual dialog.

But "kinda" probably happens in my daily vocabulary to such a degree that I'm unaware how much I use it. So, despite using this sort of word deliberately in certain situations, I'm also very guilty of using it everywhere else.

Yes I use needless filler words, but i use them because I need them ;)

Low key is a really egregious one though because it is not designed to be a filler word. The thing about filler words is that every adverb is a filler word, as neuroneiro points out. Using them less makes you sound confident and precise. Sometimes they are useful or necessary. But by definition - a filler word. It is likely our overuse of adverts which trains us to use filler words like sort of, low key, kind of

Do you ~~needlessly~~ use filler words?

Yes. I stick "honestly" in too many places, and just have a big issue always feeling like I need to qualify everything.

I like the extra verbosity. When used in moderation anyway. A little bit of seasoning for my sentences.

"Y'know what I mean?" or "Y'know what I'm saying?" is a common one. I was watching a high school football player on the news the other day, and he said "You know what I'm saying" a dozen times in his 30 second statement. He would use it multiple times in the same sentence: "We're just going to keep doing what we've been doing, y'know what I mean, executing the fundamentals, y'know what I mean, keeping the defense pressuring their quarterback, y'know what I mean, and we'll come out on top, y'know what I mean?" No exaggeration.

My sister-in-law went through a period where she said "...and stuff" at the end of every sentence for a while.

I once met a weird religious freak who started EVERY sentence with "It is written..." That was a weird one to try to have a conversation with. She would say it so fast, I couldn't even figure it out for a minute, then I got it. Every sentence started with that. Very strange mental quirk.

Why use more word when less word work

Filler words carry meaning, even if they don't have specific definitions in context. Like, "like" has a dictionary definition, but if you use it as, like, a filler word, you aren't using that definition (necessarily), but it still conveys something about how the speaker is thinking. They don't just pop up in speech at random. I like catching them and trying to interpret why speakers insert them where they do.

Like, "lowkey" is ~~usually~~* sometimes used to soften harsh language e.g. "I'm lowkey gonna murder Sarah if she doesn't stop chewing her gum with her mouth open". Kinda how "kinda" works as a filler to tone down whatever is being said. I don't actually want to murder Sarah, I just kinda want to murder her. I don't even know if I would call them "proper filler words" in the same sense that "like" is, since they do have a particular function that "like" as a filler lacks. More research is needed it seems.

For me, I let 'em fly. If I had to deliver a speech I would probably include fewer than I usually use in casual conversation, but I don't hold with the rule that they're strictly to be avoided. I think they're neat.

* edit: I just know how I've heard it used, I have no idea how it's usually used. I'm lowkey not in the lowkey demographic.

Er, no.

Uhhh idk like um maybe

No, I mean I don't use them needlessly or whatever. I kinda use them to sorta let my thoughts buffer.

IRL I often use too few filler words and get perceived to be blunt or direct. So I think there is a middle ground.

No

Um, like, no?

I'm ready for people to move on from describing 85% of things as "unhinged".

I grew up in a house with a swear word jar, and a filler word jar. The swear word jar worked differently than most. We didn't put a quarter in every time we used a swear word. We put a dollar in every time we use a swear word incorrectly or as a filler word. According to my parents, "profanity should be used as punctuation and emphasis, not decoration."

The filler word jar worked like a normal swear word jar. $0.25 in the jar for each and every filler word we used. Since this was in the '80s and '90s, we learned to think about what we said before we started speaking.

For some reason, I have an incredibly difficult time not saying like.

I bet if there were a word cloud of mymost commonly used words of all of my posts, "like" would be the sun in my fucking word solar system.

I, like, totally do!

Yes, I definitely do. It's because my brain runs quite slowly, slower than I talk. So I often need to put in filler words to let my brain catch up. Or I repeat the same thing I just said but in a different way.

It's odd how the brain can kindof pre-load the mouth with a sentence, then while the sentence is playing, it hunts for the next sentence to cue. If the next sentence is not ready yet, then the mouth goes into autopilot. It puts in filler words to make the sentence longer, and loops back on other things I've already said.

Wouldn't call it 'needless' exactly.

I'm always annoyed by the term lowkey, because in music, low key means lower pitch, and not low in volume. It's essentially bass, and my brain cannot comprehend how it could mean what it's supposed to mean.